Living a New Life
by iamaspidermonkey
Summary: Being unwanted is one thing...going back a few steps in childhood and starting a new life is another. When Sora gets the chance he's been dreaming for, will he be able to adapt to it?
1. Wishful Thinking

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and I never will. This is just a fic I got inspired to write for a variety of reasons. I'm not making money off of this and it is only for the pleasure of writing my ideas out for others to see. Enjoy!

**Chapter 1: Wishful Thinking:**

A boy rolled over in his bed, gripping the pillow below him tightly as he willed all the hurt and pain to go away. It wouldn't though, and it would be back just in the morning when his mom came to wake him or his dad drove him to school.

Even at school, it was hardly better then for the teachers being so nice. Being an outcast because of height and ideas was not a fun thing indeed. Just, not one person seemed to see the real him, hidden beneath the shell he long since learned to put up when around others. No one seeing the person hurt from lies and deceit.

Sure, he had a few friends, ones that just stopped the bulling when teachers weren't around and it got to rough, those with pity on him. He didn't want that, he just wanted someone to see him, for who he really was. Not this caged up boy who hardly ever talked.

Given the chance, the boy would've gladly joined in on conversations, but no, he couldn't do that. He was the quiet boy with good grades hiding behind a shell, lying to the world that was lying to him.

More then once, he'd wish he could become a character in a Fairy Tale book, the ones where people got what they deserved, and those evil ones would be cast away. "_Wishful thinking"_ was always the term to come to mind when he thought of that. Just thinking it, and it never happening. Why would it, there was a reason it was called Fairy Tales. None of that was true, at least not to this fourteen-year-old boy.

The boy opened his eyes, letting out a ragged sigh, then quickly stopped breathing for a second. Had they heard? Surely they couldn't have heard just a loud sigh coming from the boy?

With fearful eyes locked on the door, the boy didn't let out his breath till a minute later, concluding they hadn't heard him and he had nothing to worry about. Hm…nothing to worry about at all, that was wishful thinking that was again, especially in the house; this house that he wished with all his might he could escape from.

Escaping was the easy part, it was staying escaped that was so hard since his parents would just come looking for him. Two times! Two times he had tried to escape only to be found again; the entire world against him when he tried. Since then, he had been known to fear trying to escape from this place.

They would just come looking for him anyway.

Sure that he hadn't awoken the others in the house, the boy closed his eyes again, hanging onto the pillow like a lifeline. His blankets, he wasn't sure where they were anymore, them having gotten lost a week ago. He heard an earful because of that, so no way was he going to go try to talk to his parents about that again.

Relaxing slightly, he allowed himself to try to go back to sleep, no doubt that his dreams would be plagued by nightmares again. Last time he fell asleep in class though, his parents hadn't believed him on that, saying he had just been staying up and he'd better not do that again.

Yeah, like he ever stayed up. More like went to bed early to escape a bit to his sanctuary, though it wasn't always that. His room was the closest thing in this house to it though, since going outside would not be wise. They'd be even madder.

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"_Just nod and pretend your listening."_ The boy reminded himself at breakfast the next day, his father rambling on about what happened at work the day before. _"Twice, that's twice he's explaining this."_ He complained in his head. He'd never say that out loud though, not to face his father's wrath for correcting the man. Not even if you gave him a million dollars. His parents would just gain possession of it anyway, claiming he stole it.

Like he ever stole anything.

If anyone stole in this house, it wasn't him.

"You listening boy?" the man demanded, shoving his fork in the boy's face enough so the boy flinched backwards away from it instinctively. The man looked almost comical though, with a bit of scrambled egg on his mustache, his black mess of hair, if you could call it that, untidy even more then the boy's brown's spikes where. That, and then you had to take his suit in that did not match the gray eyes the man had. No, blue suits and gray eyes weren't the best colors to go next to eachother. Most people would chuckle at the appearance, but the boy knew better then that. Giving his reply in a small nod, he looked down at his plate of food, well, bowl of cereal.

"Good, you better be getting sleep." The man threatened more then said.

Another nod in reply as the boy cautiously took a bite from his cereal.

"Doing better in school?" the man said almost fatherly this time, though the boy wasn't fooled. Another nod.

"Will you talk at all!" great, now the man was angry and the boy couldn't help but brace himself from the language onslaught he was sure to get. _"Great, first he says don't talk to him again and now he wants me to talk. I'll never win!" _

"_He _has to get to school dear." Saved by the mom, for once in his life the boy was glad his mother cut in to say something. Must've been the first time ever, even if she was referring to him as if he wasn't even here, that was better then getting yelled at.

"If you think you've heard the last of this boy, you're mistaken. Go get your bag and get out to the car!" almost a yell there, but not quite. The boy nodded and quickly pushed back from the table, glad for an excuse to get out of there. Just a quick rush upstairs and he was grabbing his bag. Luckily though, he hadn't lost any of his things for school. His parents might just kill him then, literally. Rush back down stairs and outside into the car. The boy wasn't the least bit surprised to find his dad still inside while he was out here. Once more it looked like he'd be late for school, and no doubt he'd be blamed for it later.

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"_All he ever does is yell at me. Why can't I get a break anywhere?" _

"Mr. Hart." A pause. "Mr. Hart!" The dropping of a ruler hard on the desk of a surface, or even worse, the surface in front of the boy right next to his books, was enough to startle the boy out of the small daze he had gone into. He glanced up fearfully, afraid of getting a teacher's wrath even after all this time of not.

"Mr. Hart. Glad to see you have rejoined us. Now can you please give go up to the blackboard and finish the equation." That had turned out…good. At least in the boys point of view, as the teacher had used not a harsh tone, but one to show that the teacher was just glad to move onto the next subject. At a few whispers from behind him though, he knew exactly why the teacher had used that tone of voice.

Nodding slightly, he shifted out of his desk and went up to the blackboard. Picking up some chalk from the tray, he looked up at the problem. Easy, it was only a bit of multiplication here and some addition there. About a minute, later, the boy finished the problem, and putting the chalk back in its tray, walked over and sat down in his desk again.

"Correct. Mr. Hart, can you please stay after class. I wish to have a word with you." The teacher consulted.

As a few whispers about why the teacher would want a boy like him to stay after class, he was feeling himself retreat more into his shell. Trying his best to ignore what the students were whispering when the teacher was explaining how the boy had got to the answer, he looked down at his notebook. He pretended to be half listening to what the teacher was saying, as he wrote some things down about what they had done. It was review after all, so he knew most of it already.

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"You never seem to talk at all, and seem distracted lately. Is there anything I can help with?" The teacher questioned softly, sitting down in the desk next to the boy. It was after class now, and he was he only one left in the classroom.

The question surprised him though, which clearly showed on his face as he looked up at the teacher. No one had really asked to help him with anything, except out of pity. This teacher, sounded like she was concerned about him. He blinked once then, breaking out of his small shock, as he shook his head 'no'.

"No? Are you sure about that?" She questioned a bit further.

"No Mrs. Rose. I'm fine." The boy finally spoke, though his voice came out a bit raspy. It _had_ been a long time since he'd used it last anyway, so only natural.

"You really sure?" Mrs. Rose pressed a bit further.

"Yes, I'm sure." A bit stronger of a tone that time, though it was still a bit raspy.

"Alright, if you say so." She replied with a small smile. "I have something to give you though. So wait here a second." She added on, before standing up from the desk and going to her own. The boy watched her, his gaze still confused. Something for him? The only thing that had ever been for him before was beating, from his parent's of course. But here, Mrs. Rose had something for _him_, as if he were a real person.

Which he knew he wasn't. He was the quiet boy that never talked.

Mrs. Rose had gotten him to talk though, and not because she threatened or anything.

The boy shook his head slightly. This had to be a dream, if nothing else.

"Here." She was back, and holding out something to the boy. He glanced up at her with wary eyes, before looking at what she was holding out for him. "It's not much, but it may help. Is all I have, aside from an apple today." She furthered sweetly, still holding it out to the boy.

"A…a sandwich?" He questioned, looking back up at her confused, his shell broken for the time being. It felt, weird to try not to be hiding feelings behind a mask, but a good kind of weird.

"Your probably hungry, and it is lunch." She replied easily. "Here, it's for you."

"What are you going to eat then?" the boy questioned, shaking his head as he pushed it away. "I don't want it if you're going to go hungry." He continued on.

A small laugh from Mrs. Rose though, and he found himself confused once more.

"Don't worry, I have some money and an apple. Besides, I'm the teacher here and I say you get to eat the sandwich." She said lightly, though sternly. She still had a smile on though, which was making the boy uncomfortable, as he wasn't used to smiles as much. "Um…thanks?" He ventured, taking the sandwich from Mrs. Rose and looking at it in his hands.

"No problem. Just be sure to eat it. I'll be back in a few minutes. Explore the classroom if you like." She suggested, turning and walking down the isle of desks. She paused at the door though, looking back at the boy just in time to see a small nod coming from him. With that, she left the room.

Now, the boy being alone, unwrapped the sandwich from its wrapping. He looked at is suspiciously though, turning it over in his hands. This was just…just his mind being wishful again. It had to be; no one had been this nice to him in a long time.

"Afraid its poison?" Mrs. Rose was back already, carrying a bag of chips in her hand along with a candy bar. The boy glanced up at her, a bit startled. "N-no!" He protested shaking his head a bit.

"Good, because it's not." She replied cheerfully, sitting down in the desk next to the boy again.

He nodded slightly again, looking down at the sandwich. He lifted it to his mouth, then took a bite from it, determining it a ham and cheese sandwich? How long since he'd have one of these?

"Good?" Mrs. Rose questioned.

"Huh?" The boy asked, a bit confused as he looked at the teacher again.

"Is the sandwich good?" She revised her question.

"Oh! Yeah, its okay." He replied.

"Just okay?"

"I mean its good!"

Mrs. Rose shook her head lightly. "No need to change your answer. I was just fine with 'Okay'. Just relax a bit Sora. I'm not going to hurt you." She chided lightly.

This had to be a dream, she just used his name; No one ever uses his name, as it's usually 'boy' or 'Mr. Hart'. He couldn't help but gap a bit at that, looking a bit shocked.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" She questioned, sounding a bit confused herself then.

"N-no…nothing you said. Um…its nothing." Sora replied, shaking his head lightly as he returned to looking at his sandwich. If this was a dream, it was a really cruel one. This was only wishful thinking, for his name to be used as if he were a person people would want to talk to.

"Alright." She replied easily, taking the candy bar she had brought in her hands and opening it. Hm…it was Kit Kat, Sora noticed as he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

"So, you seem really good at math. Your not failing that's for sure, as you're the one who usually doesn't get anything wrong…" Mrs. Rose rambled on a bit, talking to Sora. Actually _talking_ to him, and Sora had not a clue what to do about it.

"Um…" He managed out, looking a bit nervous now.

"Yes?" She replied easily again, ceasing her rambling for now.

"Err…" Sora started, gaining for time. "…never mind. It's stupid." Sora finished, shaking his head.

"Well, I want to hear this stupid comment." Mrs. Rose replied.

"Oh…okay. Um…why are you being so nice to me?" Sora blurted out, before he lost his nerve to take back the question. He mentally braced himself for the worse though, as that was what he was used to.

"Why shouldn't I be?"

"What?" Sora questioned once again, confused as he looked up at the teacher again.

"Well, you seem nice, and when you do talk, your nice to talk to. So why shouldn't I be nice to you." She stated.

"Oh….um…never thought of why." Sora stated. He couldn't say why people were mean to him either, just that was what he was used to. That was all.

"Hmm…maybe you should think of why then. Make sure to finish the sandwich. Now…as I was saying." Mrs. Rose went back to talking to Sora easily then, as the boy nodded and finished eating his sandwich, courtesy of Mrs. Rose. In Sora's opinion, that was the best ham and cheese sandwich he ever had.

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Now Sora had wished he could've stayed in that classroom all day, for the rest of his life if he could handle it. It had been even better then his room had been, and a person had been there. A person, who seemed to care, and more then that, treating him like he could talk back and listen to things. She'd even got Sora to talk about a few topics of things, like about how noisy the class he was in could be. Which was pretty noisy once they were allowed to start their homework. Mrs. Rose had said she didn't really care, as long as they were working on homework at the same time.

Now though, he was back in his room as downstairs, and argument was roaring. Of course, his dad had started it with blaming Sora about a few things. Mostly about how it was Sora's fault they had gotten him late to school. Sora knew that wasn't true, but he'd learned long ago not to argue with his parents.

Now though, his dad was just blaming everything and everyone for things that was entirely not their fault, or didn't even make sense.

"_At least I made it out of their alive this time, without any hitting."_ It was plus on Sora's behalf, since he usually got one everyday after coming home from school. He'd already finished his homework by now, only having a bit of Math today. Math, he just got for some reason, a he was glad he did also.

He was hungry now though, but didn't dare step out of his little haven, his room. Not for anything since his father was still stomping around down there.

Best thing to do would to be asleep, which is what he decided to do a bit later as he rolled over onto his side on the beg, hugging the pillow to himself as he felt himself go into a grateful sleep.

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"Sora…Sora! Sora, wake up you silly boy!" Something close to the boy's ear alerted him of another presence in his room.

"Huh? What!" Thinking the worse of the situation, he shot up in bed and back away on instinct, thinking it was his mom waking him up and that he was going to be smacked or something for not waking up the first time she called his name. Wait? Called his name. She just called him 'boy' usually.

What he didn't notice though, was that some sort of light got knocked away from him when he had suddenly sat up in bed.

"Whoa, so you finally awakened!"

"Huh? Who's there!"? Sora suddenly realized his parents might hear him though, so he quickly clamped his hands over his mouth, looking fearfully over at the door. Great, in just another second his father would barge in and demand what's going on, and so much for his haven then.

"Oh, don't worry. They can't hear us."

Sora, being who he was, just shook his head, still not moving his hands from his mouth. He didn't trust himself not to blurt something out again along the lines of 'Who are you and what are you doing in my bedroom!'.

His eyes assailed the room though; not finding where the voice was coming from, though he knew it was definitely near him.

"Like I said, they can't hear us. Just try to talk. I'm not going to hurt you." The voice said again, and Sora noted this time that it was a bit squeaky for sure, but still audible. Besides, it reminded him a bit of Mrs. Rose.

Sora lowered his hands slowly, still glancing around the room for this 'thing' that was making a voice and scaring the living daylights out of him. "Who?" was all he managed to get out.

"Me? Well, I'm Firelight!" the thing said, but showed itself this time. Right in front of Sora it did, scaring the boy even more to see a bright red colored pixie pop right in front of his eyes. Not that the light from the pixie helped very much as he reeled farther back from the things, and straight into the wall with a small, startled yelp.

"Didn't know I'd scare you that much. No need to be afraid!" Firelight prompted.

"What- what are you!" Sora exclaimed, still very much startled at the moment.

"A pixie, if you haven't notice. Yeah, yeah, aren't pixie's usually green or yellow. Well too bad, I like being red and its just who I am. Got it!" Firelight exclaimed, walking around in a circle in the air.

Sora could only nod a bit dumbfounded, watching the pixie.

"So, believe in fairy tales?" The pixie prompted, walking a bit towards Sora now, but when Sora moved to try to get past his wall, she stopped again. "Well?" She persisted.

Sora just blinked a few more times at the…the…thing! This had to be a dream, right. This whole day and now was the sick way his brain was getting back at him for being wishful when he knew he shouldn't be. That had to be it. No way were fairy tales real with pixies and things turning out alright.

"Come on, it's a simple question. Yes or no?"

"No." Sora replied slowly, before he blinked. He kept his eyes closed, willing his mind to stop with this stupid game and get back to real life, or the cruel worlds.

"Hey, I'm still talking to you!" The pixie said impatiently, waving a hand in front of Sora's face.

Sora did the wrong thing and opened his eyes again, looking at the pixie straight on. "Yeah, well…I'm done talking to you!" He retorted back, growing aggravated with himself. If life wasn't unfair to him enough as it was, now he was doing it to himself. He closed his eyes then, putting his hands over his ears and shaking his head. There was no pixie there. Fairy tales weren't real. He was just the quiet boy that never talked.

"Hey, hey, hey. I'm not done yet. Don't you want a better life?" The pixie questioned, sounding a bit worried now.

"Yes, but I know not to wish for things I can't have. It's only my brain messing with me right now. You're not real, and neither is any of this!" Sora answered, showing he could still hear even with him covering his own ears. He didn't give up on shaking his head though, or opening his eyes. If he would, he was almost certain he would start crying for no good reason at all. Just like his whole life.

"Hey, its okay. Come with me." Firelight said lightly, putting a comforting hand on Sora's shoulder and squeezing it slightly. Sora only gave a small sob in response before opening his eyes a slightly and looking at the pixie out of the corner of them. Tears were clearly in his eyes, but the pixie only smiled and nodded slightly in encouragement.

Obviously, his mind wouldn't stop tormenting him so might as well go along with the pixie until his mind decided to stop its tormenting him, whenever that may be. "O-okay." He replied almost silently, nodding slightly as he tried to hold in another sob of nothing.

The pixie only nodded before closing its eyes and engulfing them both in a white-hot flame. The flames, Sora noticed as they engulfed him, weren't burning them at all. They were just a bit warm, warming him up a bit on the inside and out. Warmer then he'd ever think to feel around someone else. He almost forgot that this was just his mind playing a trick on him, and that this wasn't real. Key word, almost.


	2. Explaining Escape

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and I never will. This is just a fic I got inspired to write for a variety of reasons. I'm not making money off of this and it is only for the pleasure of writing my ideas out for others to see. Enjoy!

**Chapter 2: Explaining Escape:**

**I'll Try **

**(Return to Never Land (2002))**

_I am not a child now_

_I can take care of myself_

_I mustn't let them down now_

_Mustn't let them see me cry_

_I'm fine, I'm fine_

_I'm too tired to listen_

_I'm too old to believe_

_All these childish stories_

_There is no such thing as faith,_

_And trust and pixie dust_

_I try_

_But it's so hard to believe_

_I try_

_But I can't see what you see_

_I try, I try, I try…_

_My whole world is changing_

_I don't know where to turn_

_I can't leave you waiting_

_I can't stay and watch the city burn,_

_Watch it burn_

'_Cause I try_

_But it's so hard to believe_

_I try, but I can't see what you see_

_I try, I try_

_I try and try to understand_

_The distance in between_

_The love I feel and the things I fear_

_And every single dream_

_I can finally see it_

_Now I've got to believe_

_All those precious stories_

_All the world is made of…_

_faith, and trust…and pixie dust_

_So, I'll try_

_Because I finally believe_

_I'll try, cuz I can see what you see_

_I'll try, I'll try_

_I will try_

_I'll try…_

_To fly…_

The song died down around Sora, or was it in him? Right now, he wasn't exactly sure. The one thing he was sure of though, was that that song had been nice, though seemed awfully familiar to him. Where he heard it though?

Well, there was one other thing he was sure of rather then that. It was that he felt really warm. It wasn't a hot warm, like if he was outside in the sun, but seemed to come from inside him. Not just inside him though, but from around him also, filling him up with even more of a warm feeling.

With his eyes closed, it felt like nothing he'd felt before.

"At least he's stopped thrashing now." And easy talking tone that sounded oddly familiar.

"Yes, but when is he waking up?" that one was unfamiliar.

"He seemed really freaked out when I showed up in his room." Squeaky, but reminded Sora of the first again.

"Well, wouldn't you if you were visited by a pixie for the first time?" There was the oddly familiar one.

"I suppose" Squeaky.

"We don't have all day, I hope you know." Unfamiliar one.

"I know, but give him time. He's probably going to be in even more of a shock then meeting Firelight." Hm…was that Mrs. Rose?

"Hey! I didn't mean to shock him." Squeaky voice again, Firelight? "Besides isn't it more like night?"

" I don't need retorts Firelight, I need him to wake up so we can figure out if he's the one." the unfamiliar one again.

"_Who is that? Mmm…to tired to care." _Really, Sora felt like he'd rather keep his eyes closed then open them to see exactly who was talking around him.

Making some sort of noise of protest when he heard a voice start to talk again, Sora shook his head slightly at the voices, wishing them away as he pushed his head closer to the warmth next to him.

A slight laugh before he felt someone shaking his shoulders slightly. "Come on Sora. It's time to wake up." There was Mrs. Rose again, and she sounded oddly close, actually, right above him. This time, curiosity got the better of him as he opened his eyes. What greeted him were bleary surroundings as he glanced upward. After blinking a few more times, he saw that Mrs. Rose was next to him, more importantly, right above him as he had guessed.

"What are you doing in my room, Mrs. Rose?" was the first question to come to mind as he yawned slightly. He brought up his hands to his eyes, rubbing sleep from them as he lifted his head off something and sat up fully. He discovered a few seconds later that it hadn't been a pillow he had been laying on, but Mrs. Rose had been holding him up with her arm around his shoulders, and he had been resting on her shoulder. More so then that, that he had been sitting on her lap, which confused him to no end. There she was, treating _him_ like a person once again.

Mrs. Rose laughed again, answering: "We're not in your room Sora. Right now, well, it's more like a different world we'll just say. You've learned about the different worlds, so there should be no confusion there." She explained calmly. "And before you freak out that I was holding you while you were sleeping, it was only because you wouldn't stop thrashing around in your sleep like you were in the middle of a nightmare." She added on.

Nightmares… there was no question there, he usually had those at night. He also didn't feel like he was freaking out, just a bit confused and a feeling like his mind was like jelly. Being in a different world though, that caught his attention. Before he could question that though, despite what Mrs. Rose had just said…

"Yay! Your awake finally Sora!" the familiar pixie flew straight in his face again, causing Sora to yelp and flinch backwards away from Firelight. If Mrs. Rose hadn't reacted and caught Sora before he toppled off her and onto the floor, Sora most likely would've found himself on the floor right then.

"Firelight! Don't do that!" He actually found himself adding a small whine to his voice as he said that. He blinked after he heard himself said that. Odd.

"Okay, I'll try to stop. But your finally awake! And you remember me also. Oh! Meet Crystal!" The energetic pixie flew around in front of Sora before flying off toward another pixie a few paces away. Instead of glowing red like Firelight was, Crystal was glowing light blue and was a little bit taller then Firelight was. Sora found himself staring at the new pixie.

"Yes, nice to meet you Sora. But really, we must get on with what we need to do if we wish to be on time." Crystal stated, looking at Firelight pointedly when she said he last part.

"Oh, be on time smashy time, it'll all work out in the end. We at least have to explain." Firelight shot back, putting her hands behind her head as she looked back at Crystal.

"We don't have very much time to explain, and we're running out of time as it is."

"Yeah, but he'll just freak out even more if we don't explain."

"What's there to explain!"

"Maybe what's going on a bit and what's going to happen to him!"

Sora glanced back between Firelight and Crystal, watching the argument going on betwixt the pixies. Mrs. Rose, he saw, only shook her head and sighed slightly, placing her hands on both of Sora's shoulders as they watched the pixies continue their argument.

It felt weird, sitting in someone lap and watching pixies fight about something, something that seemed to include him. Hopefully he'd find out soon what they were talking about, because Sora was just confused right now.

"Well then, maybe-"

"Maybe we should start explaining before we lose anymore time." Mrs. Rose ended the argument there, as both pixies looked over at her before realizing they weren't the only ones there.

"Oh! Sorry!" Crystal and Firelight said at the same time, sending each other a glare before looking back at Sora and Mrs. Rose.

She only laughed again slightly before pushing Sora up and off her lap gently so she could stand up. Once Mrs. Rose was standing up, she gently pushed Sora back down into the seat she had been occupying, and Sora, confused to no end at the moment, just followed her silent instructions.

He noticed though, that she was wearing a different attire of clothes then she had been yesterday. Yesterday had been regular school uniform for teachers. Nice black pants, nice red shirt, and dress shoes. Now, she was wearing a dress. It wasn't a dress for a ball or anything, just like something out of old movies. It was light pink and went all the way down so you couldn't even see the teacher's shoes. It was long sleeved also, and actually looked pretty nice, much in contrast to what Sora was wearing which consisted of a gray shirt, worn blue jeans, and year-old sneakers that thankfully, still fit Sora. He didn't know what he'd wear for shoes if they hadn't.

His thoughts on clothes were cut off as Mrs. Rose faced him again. Funny, why'd Mrs. Rose hang out with pixies? "Sora, you do want a better life, don't you?" it was said so softly by the teacher that Sora barley caught it.

Gulping unintentionally, Sora only stared back up at the teacher. It was back to this already, and even though Sora knew the answer to that, he just couldn't say it. Too many times he'd wished for something to happen, and there was no way he was giving up his hopes that quickly. Noticing that he'd better say something though, he went for just saying a line to gain time. "Um…"

Either Mrs. Rose read his mind, or was just really good at reading facial expressions since she nodded slightly, giving a small smile to the boy.

Crystal, on the other hand, seemed impatient. "How can we be sure he's the one?" she stated, crossing her arms over her chest as she shot a small glare at the others.

"He seems to fit the prophecy." Mrs. Rose answered right away.

"And anyway, even if he isn't the one, I still think we should help him. What I mean is, you didn't see what I saw! He practically freaked when I woke him up, afraid he'd woken his parents up! Furthermore-"

"Firelight." Mrs. Rose was cutting in to warn of something.

"You didn't see his reactions to me being a pixie. I mean, sure, I know he wouldn't have known of the silencing charm I put on the door, but still-"

"Firelight!"

Firelight seemed to ignore her name, or just didn't hear it as she continued rambling on. " I mean, come on, who doesn't want to meet a fairy. I know I would, even if I wasn't a pixie-"

"Um…prophecy?" Sora questioned hesitantly, cutting of Firelight's ramble finally as the pixie glanced at him. She snapped her hand over her mouth, noticing that she could've said too much and thanking she hadn't.

"That's nothing you need to worry about Sora, the thing you need to worry about is…" Mrs. Rose seemed to trail off into thought for a moment, before an idea seemed to occur to her as she looked at Sora again. "…it is about the first time you tried to escape from that house. Remember any details?"

"Um…yeah. I was six, and caught a day after I tried to esc- Wait! How'd you know about it!" Sora exclaimed, his head snapping up to glance at Mrs. Rose in shock for a moment.

She seemed to have all the answers today as she pointed at the pixies. "Them, that's how. Right now, you have guardian pixies rather then angels. The angels, at the moment, have a more important matter to attend to, so the pixies are filling in for them. I can't really explain more then that, so you'll have to go without a few answers right now."

Sora nodded to show he had heard what the teacher had said, and didn't question any further on that subject. He did trust the teachers at his school, and Mrs. Rose seemed to radiant trust anyway. Instead, Sora glanced at the two pixies. "So you two have been watching over me?"

"No, only Firelight has. I'm just here to help out with what we are going to help you out with." Crystal replied.

"And I'll be there with you every step of the way!" Firelight put in, for some reason beyond Sora.

"Okay. Um…so why do I need to remember when I escaped for the first time?" Sora questioned further, trying to make sense of what was going on.

"Easy, because of this." Crystal said, holding up one of her hands. She looked at Firelight, who rolled her eyes and held up one of her own hands also. Both of them snapped at the same time, and that was all. Well, at least to the pixies.

Sora, he found himself doused in water. It wasn't really water though, just the feeling of it, since when he shook his head, nothing came off him. No droplets or anything.

"Um…" was all Sora could say as he caught the glances others were giving him. The pixies looked amused while Mrs. Rose was just shaking his head.  
"You could've warned him first you know." She stated, shaking her head slightly. Then she glanced at Sora, catching his look. "Sora, look down at yourself to see what we're talking about." She added.

So, Sora did what she suggested, and found himself…a six year old again? Even down to the same clothes. A white shirt with blue collaring, red shorts with black pockets, and brown sandals. Sora blinked a few times, eyes widening slightly, before looking up at the others again. "Um…what happened?" even his voice was higher then it usually was, probably because he looked six now so his voice had changed to match his new age.

"Pixie magic. It is part of the plan so don't worry. You just need to trust us without knowing all the answers. You'll get them later. Right now though, with that completed, we really need to go. You need to get down to the docks on Destiny Islands if you're to ever get away from this life and onto a better one. Can you trust us this once Sora?"

Sora blinked a few times at Crystal's explanation. Trust, how could he trust anyone, even if he felt like trusting these three. Everything was just getting way too confusing though, and now they expected him to go through whatever they were going to go through without explanations? They did say he'd get a better life though, even if he thought that was only wishful thinking. This didn't seem like a dream though, and if it was it was a horrible one.

Despite all his inner confusion, Sora found himself nodding at the three, acting more on instinct then on anything else. What was he suppose to do anyway, but nod and go with it? It wasn't like he could go back home looking like a six year old?

Like he'd ever want to go home anyway.

The pixies seemed to relax a bit though, and even Mrs. Rose.

"Well, sorry to leave you with a ton of questions Sora, but I really need to go. Just follow what Crystal and Firelight say, and see you again someday." Mrs. Rose said, smiling slightly at Sora before turning with a wave over her shoulder. "Be good now. See ya."

Sora nodded his goodbye, even managing to say: "Bye Mrs. Rose. Um…thanks again." Before watching the former teacher walk away and seemingly, disappeared into the white around them.

Now that Sora noticed it, everything around them was white, and the only thing that seemed to be there other then a simple white vastness was the chair his was sitting in. The chair itself was white too, but it was like a rocking chair more then anything, though Sora didn't have time to ponder what it really was since Firelight flew right up to him then.

"Sora, we need to go. Come on, take my hand." She stated, holding out her hand to him. He took it with a small amount of hesitation, becoming slightly wary again. All that happened to Sora though, was the familiar feeling of being engulfed in a fire, like the first time he had been touched by a pixie and brought here. Now though, after a blinding light, he was still awake…and in a park.

A very familiar park it was also.

In fact, a park just a block down from his house from where he lived on Destiny Islands with his parents.

Blinking in mild surprise, since he was starting to get used to surprises by now, he felt Firelight let go of his hand. Glancing at the pixie, he saw her give him a slight smile before pointing at the walkway, since they were concealed behind bushes.

"It's just me and you now bud, and we have to make it to the docks before sunrise if we're to make it on time. One thing though, we have to try not to be seen, so we have to stay concealed…" and then Firelight went on her little ramble of the plan she had devised earlier.

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Sora sighed in relief, resting his head against the back of the wall. He and Firelight were currently in a Gummi Ship, well, the storage space of the ship anyway. Firelight had chosen this spot, saying it would be a good place to hide from the rest of the crew. Sora hadn't seen them but he certainly had heard them when they had been getting on the ship to hide.

Basically, Firelight had said they had to get on this Gummi ship so they could leave this world and Sora would find his better life. To get there though, they had hide in alleyways behind garages, behind people's bushes in yards, and even went as far to hiding in the branches of a few trees. It hadn't been fun, that was for sure, but Sora was glad it was over now, and there was no more hiding to be done but staying where he was. He was even gladder they had made it on time.

Of course, he questioned what was going to happen now, but didn't dare say anything less he should alert the others on the Gummi Ship.

That was something they didn't need.

Instead, Sora took to thinking over what had happened that day. It had been so bizarre, but exactly like a fairy tale. He almost laughed at that thought, but kept it in since yeah, other people. Now though, unlike earlier that night, he was certain this wasn't a dream, it was too good to not be true.

At least that's what he said to himself.

Pulling his knees up to his chest, and wrapping his arms around them, he rested his chin on his knees and glanced around. It was just boxes around him, except for Firelight who had taken to sitting on his head and keeping a lookout. Sora didn't mind that though, and actually was glad to have the pixie's company. Firelight was almost like the friend he never had, though she was a friend, he was sure of that. There was nothing else for him to call her then that also.

The same went or Crystal and Mrs. Rose. Mrs. Rose had been a teacher, but now, she seemed like she was more important than that to Sora, since what went on. Crystal seemed a bit stiff, but Sora thought that she secretly went along with what Firelight was always saying. Firelight, was something else completely, but was nice company. All in all, he was glad he'd met these three.

Sora jumped slightly though, hearing the engines of the ship pick up. Then came the feeling of leaving the ground behind, as Sora was sure the ship was taking off.

He felt panic pick up a bit inside of him a bit, as his hands went to grip the floor. There was nothing to grip though, and Sora took to just grabbing at nothing as he glanced around with his eyes. Instantly, he was regretting what was going on. What would those people say if they found him in _their_ Gummi Ship? Surely they would just bring him back home, and then he'd be back with his parents, something he didn't want to happen.

He'd be stuck when _them_ even longer now that he was six.

Firelight seemed to sense his growing panic as she fluttered down onto his right shoulder. There she sat, patting Sora's shoulder comfortingly.

Sora glanced at her, before taking a deep breath and willing himself to relax a bit, if anything. Even with Firelight sitting on his shoulder and Sora willing himself to calm down, he couldn't help the negative thoughts that came to mind. The thought like this was never going to work; or that it was all just some joke with some way to make him six for a small amount of time. Sora shook his head slightly, bringing his arms to wrap around his legs again as he rested his chin on his knees again. He closed his eyes, lapsing into thought.

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_**Earlier that day**_

"_It's just me and you now bud, and we have to make it to the docks before sunrise if we're to make it on time. One thing though, we have to try not to be seen, so we have to stay concealed…" Firelight ramble on about the plan that just consisted of them running, hiding, and making their way towards the Gummi ship. _

"_Come on. Lets just get going." Sora sighed, exasperated since the little pixie had been rambling for a span of five minutes now._

"_Fine, fine. Don't come crying to me if your forget something, this way." The pixie lead Sora through the throng of bushes and for once, Sora was grateful there were so many in the park. It concealed them from the early morning walkers, policemen sitting in their cars looking out for trouble, and most importantly, anyone who would recognize him in his state._

_Just because he was unwanted didn't mean people didn't know what he looked like._

_With all that was going around him, Sora began to feel a bit like a spy out of old movies. He saw people who didn't see him or Firelight, which surprised him since he could see the glow from the pixie quite clearly. No one they passed turned to look at them though; they were too busy with what they were doing to pay much attention._

_Away from the park they went, and farther away from Sora's old life in the house he disliked. Now there were passing houses, hiding behind the garbage cans, and behind parked cars. Still no one caught a glimpse of the two passing by silently._

_Both were quiet, which was what Sora had plenty of practice in doing. The most communication either one had was gesturing the way towards something or behind an object when they thought a person was coming by. _

_Up a tree they went once when there was no car or bush close enough to hide the two from a passerby. Sora had almost fell out of it when making his way back down towards the ground, but the pixie had helped him gain his balance again. Once they were down again, it was off towards the docks they went._

_Sora had recognized the route up to this point, but upon passing his school, in which the boy stopped and glanced up at it for a moment, he was depending on Firelight for direction. Sora had never gone very far past his school he hadn't been allowed to._

_Past a few sand dunes once they reached the beach, the two hid underneath one of the five docks there. Luckily this one wasn't all the way in the water and had sand underneath it enough for the two to take a small breather. Firelight left for a moment, saying she had to find something out and the boy, who really was a boy now, sat in the sand, watching it fall through his hands as he waited for Firelight's return. It had taken a good half hour to get this far, and he could tell dawn was arriving with the sky growing bluer by the minute._

_Firelight returned a few minutes later, leading Sora away from cover and towards some type of ship. It was big, with a ton of curves and what looked to be guns on the wings of the ship. The wings themselves were small but fit with the size of the ship. A cockpit was open on it, and that's what they went into. They went past the controls and the three seats into the back area of the ship. Firelight opened a small door and they went inside, Firelight closing the door behind them._

_Firelight explained this place was storage as they made the way around the boxes and into the back of the small space. There Sora sat down and rested against the wall, Firelight taking a place on his head for the lookout._

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"Sora! Wake up!"

Sora found himself being woken up by the pixie once again, and by noises coming from outside the room as well. Whatever it was going on out there, it sounded like a lot of crashing and sirens; confusing Sora's befuddled mind at the moment. "Wha! What's going on?" He questioned, looking around the room, spotting the pixie flying in front of him worriedly.

"The ship! It's crashing!" She exclaimed, before flying in tight nervous circles again.

"What!" Sora exclaimed, standing up at once. He looked towards the door, already starting to make his way towards it to see if the pixie was right. He lost his footing though, and crashed into one of the boxes to his right as he felt the ship jerk violently.

"Omigee! Are you okay!" Firelight squeaked, flying in front of his face again as he heard yelling coming from outside the cabin.

"Yeah, fine." He answered quietly, brushing off that his elbow hurt now as he stood up again and continued to make his way towards the door. Firelight followed behind, neither protesting nor saying he should look out into the cabin. She was to busy worrying over what to do next, because this certainly wasn't part of the plan she had devised.

Sora made it to the door, but not before the ship started to dip straight down to crash into whatever it was about to crash into. He felt the ship accelerating more then it should as the boxes slid into the wall around him, and one into the door.

Sora, getting frustrated now that everything seemed to be trying to block him from looking out, tried pushing the box out of the way while holding one hand to the wall so he was still able to stand up. It felt like he was standing on his one hand now more then anything as the ship pointed straight down. That's when his hand couldn't hold his body weight any more and he fell to his side on the wall.

After quite a few tries at moving the box again, he finally managed to move it out of the way, and the pixie had landed on his shoulder some time ago and was holding onto the boy to not fall also.

Now came the door. He tried to open it, but it was hard since the door opened inwards towards the small storage space, and opening it was going against gravity. He tried though, and opened it a crack before it flung open on itself and Sora was able to see outside into the cockpit. Luckily he had moved his hand out of the way of the door so he was undamaged. He was careful not to lean too far out to look out less he fall out himself and into the cockpit. The three men that had been controlling the ship seemed to be trying to get a hold of the ships control of where it was going to land, since one was fussing with the controls. One of the other men was trying to reach the emergency button with great difficulty and the last was trying to help gain control with buttons he was pressing.

Sora tore his gaze off the men, his hold tightening on the frame of the door to steady himself in his position. The rest of his body was flat against the wall except for his head and his one hand holding onto the doorframe, and it was taking all the boy's strength not to let his head fall against the door frame.

Everything seemed to fall into slow motion now as he lifted his gaze to look out the cockpit window, finding land dangerously close ahead of them. The man reached the emergency button, but it was already too late. Another siren joined the first two as Sora heard yells and screams start up as the men saw that it was too late also. He vaguely registered that he was screaming himself before his eyes shut tight for impact sure to come.

The last thing he registered was a loud sound coming from all around him as the ship met land.


	3. Temporary Home

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and I never will. This is just a fic I got inspired to write for a variety of reasons. I'm not making money off of this and it is only for the pleasure of writing my ideas out for others to see. Enjoy!

**Chapter 3: Temporary Home:**

Voices swarming in and out of hearing range as shouts and cries coming from all around. The sounds of something burning nearby as Sora felt a heat coming from somewhere close by. Too many voices, it was too warm here, something was wrong.

Despite that he knew all that, he couldn't make himself move away from the noise or heat.

Pain seemed to rack through him at the moment, that and some fear that started in the pit of his stomach and spread like wildfire though the small boy. Something seemed to be missing though. He couldn't remember what had just happened to make him hurt so much, or what was going on at the moment aside from voices shouted something he couldn't make out at the moment.

Being only six at the moment, he did the only thing he could think of...

He started to cry.

Why exactly he was crying, whether from pain or from something else, was beyond him. The only thing he was sure of was that he felt wet things falling down his cheeks signaling that he was crying. Any noises he made with the crying were lost in the sounds around him.

Till a voice…

"Hey, we have one alive!" someone shouted close by him, causing Sora to flinch involuntary from the shout.

"Really, the other three are dead." A softer sounding voice said a bit farther away then the first.

Then he felt hands placing his own on his stomach, an arm lift his head a few inches before resting on the nape of his neck, another arm going underneath his knees before he felt himself leave the ground again, probably being picked up by someone. Sora cried out again, in pain as it shot in volts through his body.

"Roxas! Be careful with him!" that softer voice cried out again.

"I'm trying to be, but we have to get him to the hospital before he does end up like the others!" the voice, Roxas if Sora was following a conversation right, said in defense.

He felt himself being hugged to something warm then, most likely this Roxas person that other voice was talking about.

"L-" Whatever else had to be said by this Roxas person was lost on Sora as he fell into a dark abyss. Call it that or lost consciousness, whichever you prefer.

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"Lets go." Roxas said, looking up from the boy in his arms to Olette standing a few feet from him. He'd found this boy crying a few minutes ago, and now the sudden stop of crying from the boy had him growing more worried.

He, Olette, Hayner, and Pence had been taking a trip to the other side of Twilight Town, a thing they had been planning to do since last week. Finally all four of them weren't over crammed with end of the year homework. Just another two weeks and they'd be out. All four of them had been walking up Sunset Hill when they saw something coming to crash out of the sky. It turned out to be a Gummi Ship on fire, a thing the four teenagers found out when they had reached the top of the hill where the ship had crashed. Instantly, all four of them had gone towards one of the fallen guys. Hayner, Pence, and Olette had gone to the men while Roxas, strangely, went by the fallen boy who seemed to be the only one alive out of the four after hearing what Olette had said.

At first Roxas hadn't been sure the boy was still alive, but at the start of tears coming from the boy he was certain.

Now, before the boy fell into a worse condition then he already was, or they lost him altogether, they had to get to the hospital on the other side of the island from this one. That would mean they would have to take the train back to be the quickest, but they had to try to save this boy.

Olette nodded at what Roxas had said, turning towards where Hayner and Pence still were. "You two stay here and wait for the officials to arrive, I'm going with Roxas to get this boy to the hospital!" She shouted over to them.

Roxas didn't wait, he just hugged the boy close to him, afraid of him dieing in the next minute or so, and turned to start walking down the hill. The faster they got to the train, the better.

Hayner and Pence said something back to Olette behind him, but his mind was elsewhere so he didn't catch what he said.

He did catch Olette putting a hand on his shoulder, in which he spared a glance her way before looking forward.

"Come on, let's try to run. We have to get there as soon as possible." She said with a worried glance at the boy in Roxas's arms.

Roxas nodded and soon both he and Olette were running down the hill of Sunset Hill and into Sunset Terrace. It was easy to take the trail between the houses there to reach the station, and it only took a span of five minutes with the way the two were running.

Glad that the train ride between Sunset Station and the regular station on the other side of town was free, Roxas and Olette got on the train straight away.

Roxas sat down, Olette taking the seat next to him. Still worrying over that they might be too late, Roxas took to checking that the boy was breathing and had a pulse. He did, but the breathing was shallow and it took him a few seconds to find a steady pulse, though it was anything but steady. Olette watched him with worried eyes, stopping him from panicking so much with saying they would make it to the hospital on time.

So lost in their worry, they hardly noticed when the train started to take off.

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"I don't know who he is, but he needs help!" Roxas had taken to shouting at the receptionist now. She kept asking questions he had no clue about for the boy. All he knew was this boy needed help and quickly.

Olette seemed to be taking a calmer route. "We don't know anything about the boy, just that he was in a Gummi Ship accident. He was the only one to survive out of it and he needs to be checked over. His breathing's shallow and his pulse is uneven. We don't know anything else." She stated, shaking her head lightly.

"Why didn't you say that in the first place!" the receptionist said then, turning to get out of her seat, then ran behind the desk into the hallway behind.

Roxas just gave her a look that plainly said: 'That's what I did say in the first place!'

Olette only shook her head at Roxas's look. "How is he holding up?" She questioned instead, referring to the boy in his arms. He looked around six or seven, with spiked brown hair that could probably rival Roxas's blonde spiked hair when older. Not that she didn't notice Roxas's other features, like how he always wore a black shirt with a seemingly star thing hanging off the zipper, a white shirt jacket with small black square patterns across the chest and at beginning of the sleeves, fit with black pants that had the portion from his thighs to the end of the pants that was light gray, along with gray and black shoes with red laces to his black band on his index finger on his left hand and the white band on his middle finger left hand to the checkered black and white band on his left wrist.

Yes, she noticed those, must in contrast to her own clothes which consisted of an orange shirt with white lining and white flowers running down the left side of her stomach, a black rope necklace with a small green amulet and green bead bracelet on her right wrist, courtesy of Roxas, down to her light brown capris to her white sneakers with black portion where her laces would be, but weren't since she didn't have laces, not really.

"He's still breathing, but if he doesn't get help soon…what kind of hospital is this anyway?" Roxas decided to change what he was saying, since saying the other thing probably would be looking on the down side of things, and he got enough of 'Don't do that!' from Olette. Besides, it was taking longer to get a doctor for this kid then it had been running from the train station to here.

"I'm sure they are busy or something to be attending to us so slow." Olette reasoned right when the receptionist returned with a nurse in hand.

"Just hand the kid here and I'll be sure to make sure he gets a doctor." The nurse said reassuringly, taking the boy from Roxas before disappearing into the back room.

"Now I just need you to answer a few more questions before I let you go." The receptionist said, taking her seat again in the waiting room.

Roxas sighed loudly enough to make Olette laugh and give him an apologetic look.

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Voices again, different from the first time swarmed around him. Actually, it was only one voice, and it seemed to be right over him. Sora rolled over in his sleep, hugging onto something underneath his head as he tried to block out the other voice in the room. Couldn't they see, who ever they were, that he was trying to sleep at the moment! If a pounding in his head wasn't enough, he had the voice saying something above him.

The voice persisted though, whatever it was saying, trying to break through Sora's stubbornness to stay asleep as he continued to ignore the voice.

Then came the light shaking, and Sora found that was even harder to ignore. Sighing slightly, finding that he wouldn't be able to sleep at the moment, he opened his eyes to see the world a bit blurry. Not the world exactly, but a white wall with a few white chairs against it. It reminded him of something as he yawned slightly, bringing up his hand from under a light blanket to cover his mouth.

"Finally decided to join us, did you? A sweet voice said from behind him. Sora blinked a few times, before rolling on his back to look up at whoever was talking to him. When he did roll over though, his head hurt a lot.

There seemed to be a nurse there, a female one that was smiling down at him sweetly. She was wearing white attire, white shirt with a nametag and pants with dress shoes. Her brown hair was up in a ponytail, and there was the little nurse hat sitting on top of her head that read TT HOSPITAL, whatever that meant was beyond Sora at the moment, and friendly green eyes watching him as he found himself starting up at her.

Now he felt really confused for a reason.

"Hi." He said shyly, blinking a few times.

"Hello, I'm Aerith." She said, taking a seat next to him on the bed as she continued to smile at him.

"I'm Sora." Sora said, sitting up so he could look at Aerith better. His head hurt again though, making him flinch, so he brought his hand up to rub the back of it to ease the pain. Bandages were in the way though, which made him freeze in what he was doing.

Aerith tsked slightly, bringing up her own hands to place Sora's in his lap. "Don't freak out now, you've just been in an accident and we're doing out best to take care of you at the moment. Do you remember what happened?" She questioned softly.

Sora shook his head in answer. He didn't really remember anything except the essentials.

Aerith sighed before smiling again. "Well, we'll tell you more about that later." She suggested, nodding her head slightly. "So Sora, how old are you?"

That, he knew the answer to, "Six!" He replied happily, holding up five fingers.

Aerith laughed slightly, before bringing up his other hand and holding up one finger from it. "This is how you show six Sora. See? One, two, three, four, five, six." She said, pointing to one of his fingers each time she counted a number.

Now it was Sora's turn to laugh a bit as he held up six fingers then. "I'm six!" He repeated again, earning a laugh from Aerith.

She patted his head, pausing to ruffle Sora's hair before letting her hand rest in her lap. "Well, you ready for some medicine?" she questioned, earning a disgusted look from Sora which made her laugh again. "Whether you want it or not, you need to take some medicine, you want to get better, don't you?" She questioned.

Sora thought about that, though it didn't require much thought at all. He nodded, but not before saying: "Yuck." Medicine was medicine, and most medicines tasted bad.

Aerith laughed again before standing up. "I'll be back in a minute, so just stay put." She stated, before turning and leaving out of the door, closing it behind her.

Sora just watched her leave. Why would he leave? He had nowhere to go; at least he didn't think he did.

He took to looking around the room instead. All it was; was white walls, about four chairs, two on each side of his bed, and table full of tools and stuff Sora had no clue about right next to his bed. There was a TV in the corner of the ceiling staring blankly down at him as he furthered his search. A small table sat between each pair of chairs with magazines piled in a small pile on them.

He himself was on a white bed, with matching pillows and blanket, and dressed in one of those hospital outfits for patients. The outfit was light blue. He also had a few bandages here and there on his legs and arms, but nothing looked too serious.

Sora took his gaze to the only window in the room, getting out of bed himself to look out it. He stood next to the big window, which must've been two or three times taller then this little Sora, gazing out into the town.

"Whoa!" He stated in small awe, looking at all the buildings out there and even further away past the buildings, the ocean. That's what Sora guessed for the moment anyway; since he didn't even know what hospital he was in.

"I thought I said stay put, what are you doing out of bed?" a stern but playful voice said behind him.

Sora jumped, turning around to face Aerith who was smiling down at him. She had two people behind her standing a few feet away that went unnoticed by Sora for the moment.

"Looking out the window. Is that the ocean?" he answered innocently, turning and pointing out the window again at the water in the distance.

"Uh huh. You can get by the ocean by going to the beach." Aerith answered, before picking up Sora from behind and placing him on the bed again. That caused the boy to look up at her with a questioning glance.

"You can go to looking out the window again in a minute, first medicine. Remember?" She questioned, smiling at Sora again.

"Oh, yuck." Sora replied, making a face and getting a laugh from somewhere behind him. "Huh?" he mumbled quietly, turning slightly to look over his shoulder at the two new people there. He cocked his head to the side, a bit confused as to when they came in.

"That's Roxas and Olette. They brought you here a few hours ago and have been waiting to see if you were okay." Aerith leaned in closer to Sora's ear then, whispering: "Besides, Roxas, my son, had to help around the hospital today anyway." She said, laughing a little at the "Mom!" coming from the spiky hair blonde Sora took for Roxas. The girl must be Olette.

"Alright, now that introductions are done, you need your medicine." Aerith stated sweetly, and when Sora turned back to the nurse, he found a spoon waiting with medicine on it. Opening his mouth obediently, Aerith gave him the medicine.

Sora took it, but not without making a face at what it tasted like. Aerith handed him a Styrofoam cup with some water in it to wash the medicine down, which Sora took thankfully and drank the whole cup.

"Introductions aren't done though. Who is this kid?" Roxas put out, getting a look from Olette that Sora missed.

"This is Sora and he's six." Aerith said, gesturing to the boy.

"Yep! I'm six!" He said, holding up six fingers for Roxas and Olette to see as he turned to face them instead.

Olette giggled slightly, standing up to ruffle Sora's hair lightly. "Nice to meet your Sora. I'm fourteen? So is Roxas." She said, gesturing to the blonde again.

"Whoa! Fourteen! That's…that's more then ten fingers!" Sora held up all ten of his fingers to show what he meant.

"Yeah it is Sora." Olette answered, patting Sora's head again.

Roxas snorted slightly from where he was sitting with his head resting in the palm of his hand, and his elbow on his knee. "Girls." He said, and Sora could only turn his gaze on Roxas with a questioning look. He didn't find anything wrong with girls, so did Roxas?

Roxas seemed to catch his questioning look though, since he shrugged and sighed slightly under the 'girls' gazes.

Sora hopped off the bed again though, ignoring the girls looks at him when he did so and walked over by Roxas, stopping a few feet in front of the teen to cross he arms and look at Roxas for a moment.

Roxas raised an eyebrow at Sora's actions, wondering what the boy was up to now.

"Thanks." Simple word stated, but there was a great deal of meaning behind it.

"Your welcome Sora." Roxas's answered back, smiling slightly as he reached out with his free hand to ruffle Sora's spiky hair. Third time that was done by someone today, and both girls were confused behind him as to why Sora was saying thanks to Roxas for. Roxas seemed to know though, so that's all that mattered.

Sora smiled back though, before reaching up with both his hands to catch Roxas's and stop him from moving in his hair. "Hey! You're messing up my hair!" He protested, giving a small pout before laughing as Roxas's smile grew a bit more.  
"Oh am I? How can I mess is up when it already is?" He questioned back, laughing slightly himself.

"Well, you're messing is up more! So quit it!" Sora answered playfully, even went as far to sticking his tongue out at Roxas.

Roxas only laughed again before giving Sora's hair a final ruffle and then, after getting his hands out of Sora's smaller ones, let his hand rest in his lap.

Sora only giggled again, before looking back up at the girls, seeing them smiling at Roxas and himself. He could only grin more, hearing Roxas sigh behind him.

When he glanced at Roxas though, Roxas was only rolling his eyes and smiling slightly. "Girls." He muttered again, catching Sora looking at him once more and shrugged in response.

"What's wrong with girls?" Sora questioned, not going with a shrug to the answer anymore.

"Nothing. You'll understand when your older Sora." He stated, patting Sora's head again before looking up at his mother again.

"So what's going to happen to Sora now?" he questioned, since that one had been bugging him for a while.

"Well, he'll stay here for a bit to make sure he recovers all he way, and in the meantime we'll also be trying to find his parents." It was then that Aerith turned her gaze from her son to Sora who was still standing in front of Roxas. "Sora, who are your parents?" She questioned softly.

"Um…" Sora looked down then, crossing his arms again as he looked at his feet. Who were his parents? He wasn't too sure.

Thinking about this, he didn't see when a familiar red glow appeared in front of him till the pixie flew in his face, which cause Sora to jump in surprise and cry out: "Firelight!" before crashing his back into Roxas's legs. Roxas, acting on instinct, grabbed Sora's arms to steady the boy on his feet.

Sora had his eyes on Firelight flying in front of him though, not paying much attention to other things at the moment

"Hehe…did ya miss me?" Firelight giggled, crossing her arms as she looked at Sora.

"Firelight, is that one of your parents?" Aerith questioned, confused.

Firelight seemed offended by that, turning to glare at Aerith. "I most certainly am not! I'm a pixie thank you very much- Oh wait. She can't see me." Firelight pouted slightly then, turning back to Sora.

"They can't see you?" the boy questioned, cocking his head at the pixie.

"Nope, only you can at the moment." She answered.

"How come?"

"Because I'm not sure if they can be trusted yet."

"Oh."

"Sora?" Aerith seemed confused by what he was saying, and so did Roxas and Olette on closer inspection of things. Realizing he still had to answer, he looked up at her.

"Um…Firelight is my friend, but you can't see her because she doesn't know if you guys can be trusted yet." He answered, getting a bit confused when Aerith and Olette giggled slightly.

"Oh, that's alright then. Firelight can stay hidden if she wishes to. You haven't answered my first question yet though." She pushed the boy back on topic with words.

"Oh…um…no…" Sora answered, looking a bit apologetic when he glanced back up at the nurse again.

"That's okay Sora. Just tell me if you do remember." She gave Sora a smile then, nodding her head slightly.

"Um…Sora?"

Sora glanced at Firelight again, since she seemed to be questioning something.

"Yeah?"

"I have to go now." Firelight said, putting her hands behind her back while she looked at the floor.

"Huh? Already? You just got here though!" Sora protested, turning his full attention to the pixie now.

"Yeah, but I'm not really suppose to be here during the day. I just came to check up on you and you seemed to be doing alright." Firelight paused for a second, before adding: "But I'll be back to check on you again real soon."

"Promise?" Sora questioned.

"Promise."

Sora nodded then. "Alright then. I'll see you around soon Firelight. Oh! Say 'hi' to…um…somebody…"

"Crystal?"

"Yeah! Say 'hi' to Crystal for me." Sora said, nodding his head before remembering something else. "Oh…and I think there's someone else too, but I don't remember." Sora said, looking a bit downhearted.

"That's okay, I'll just say 'hi' to all the pixies for you. I have to go now, so see ya around." Firelight nodded and waved before disappearing in a red glow again.

"Alright, bye Firelight." Sora said, smiling again as he looked back up at the nurse and Olette. They both were smiling at him and it was this time that Sora said: "Girls."

Roxas laughed then, hearing what Sora said. "Looks like you caught onto that one faster then I'd expected." He stated with a smile to Sora, both boys getting reprimanded looks from the girls, which only caused them to laugh more.

The girls eventually joined in the laughing also.

"Sorry to tell you this guys, but visiting hours are over and Sora still needs to eat." Aerith said after the laughter had calmed down.

"Aw…okay." Olette said, nodding slightly before motioning for Roxas to get up.

He did, just not right away. "Yeah, we left Hayner and Pence waiting by the Gummi ship, they probably went home by now since it's getting late." He replied, stretching before feeling a tug at his pant leg. He looked down to see Sora with a questioning glance again.

"Who Hayner and Pence?" was the first question.

"They are friends of mines and Olette." Was the first answer.

"What a Gummi Ship? Is it candy?"

"No, they just call it a Gummi Ship because the pieces they are built out of stuff called gummies…I think. It's not candy though and it's a ship that can fly through space."

"Whoa! Fly through space! It must be a really good ship then!"

"Yeah. Cid could tell you all about those Gummi Ships, its his job."

"Who's Cid?"

"He's an Uncle of mines."

"Oh. What does he do with the Gummi Ships, eat them?"

"No Sora. They are not candy remember? He builds Gummi Ships and fixes them also."

"The Gummi Ships can get broken?"

"Almost everything can get broken."

"Really?"

"Really."

"I think that's enough question and answer you two." Aerith finally cut in to the conversation when it looked like Sora was thinking of what question to ask next.

Roxas blinked and looked up from Sora, before smiling apologetically and rubbing the back of his head a little.

Sora, oddly, copied what Roxas was doing with out either of them knowing. It caused both girls to giggle slightly.

"Come on Roxas, before it gets too dark." Olette said, grabbing Roxas's hand to pull him out of the room before any more delays were made.

"Bye Roxas! Bye Olette!" Sora called after them, waving from his spot in the room.

"Roxas, remind your father not to burned supper this time." Aerith put in quickly.

"Can do!" was the last thing Sora heard from Roxas for a while as the blonde disappeared out the doorway with Olette still pulling him.

Aerith smiled, before turning to look at Sora. "So…what are you hungry for?"

Sora thought for a moment about that, crossing his arms again and looking at his shoes again before coming up with an idea. "Macaroni and Cheese!" He said happily, looking back up at Aerith with a smile.

"Alright, I think we can arrange that." Aerith smiled and nodded at Sora's enthusiasm.

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Aerith sighed as she walked into her house after a long day at work. After getting Sora something to eat and him off to bed, there had been papers and much more to worry about. Now though, she was home with her husband and Roxas, a thought that made her smile as she closed the pure white door behind her. "Supper better not be burnt!" she called out into the house playfully, walking further into the living room.

She placed her brief case down on the coffee table, it was full of papers she would need to look at later, as she moved past the worn but still comfortable couch and loveseat, past a curio cabinet sitting next to the TV, or entertainment center, as she made her way into the doorway of the kitchen, looking in it.

"It's not mom, don't you have any trust in us!" An answer finally found it's way back to her in the form of her son, which she saw in the kitchen cooking something in a pot on the stove at the moment.

The kitchen was cozy as cabinets lined the wall. The sink was on the wall to her left with the dishwasher, still unusable, next to it. A small turn in the counter after the sink and down the wall in front of her sat the gas stove with a bit more of a counter on the other side of it holding a microwave, toaster, and coffee maker. Next to that was the fridge and then after a small stretch of wall the backdoor leading to the side of the yard.

Windows lined the wall to her right with the drapes drawn, as it was nighttime. A lone table with three chairs sat in the middle of it all, a place for them to eat meals when pleased to seek each other's company.

"Where's your father?" Aerith questioned, loosing her smile as she glanced around the kitchen, stepping in further.

Roxas finally turned from cooking whatever it was and faced his mother. "Um…he said he had to work late." The answer came readily. Truth was Roxas wasn't exactly sure; all he had gotten was a phone call from his dad saying he had to stay later then usual to attend to fragile problems, whatever that meant.

Then speak of the devil, a car pulled up in the driveway just outside their house.

Aerith smiled. "That must be your father now. What exactly are you cooking?" she inquired, looking from looking out the window back to her son.

"Oh. Macaroni and Cheese…what?" Roxas questioned, bemused when his mother had started to laugh again when he said that.

"Nothing dear, just get back to it before you get your supper burned." She calmed herself down enough, smiling at her son a last time before walking back into the living room to attend to the papers that she needed to attend to.

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"He doesn't seem to remember anything aside from things about himself like what he likes and dislikes. Everything else he draws a blank from. He didn't even remember the crash." Aerith explained to her husband and son at the table sitting in the middle of the kitchen. They were swapping day stories now, and Roxas had just finished his story of finding Sora this morning. Aerith was telling of how she questioned Sora about his life and he seemed to draw up blanks on everything. "It doesn't seem like he had a bad concussion, but now I'm not so sure." She added on, shaking her head lightly as she looked down at her clothes. A simple pink dress now that reached her knee's before her boots took over, a black bracelet on her right wrist, rope necklace around her neck, and a red bow holding her hair up now.

"That's not the only problem going on. It seems the barrier between the worlds has gone up today, and no one can trace where that crashed Gummi ship came from, it was too burnt to make anything out." Her husband, Cloud, said. His fingers were in a steeple in front of his face, hiding his frown as he looked out from behind them at his family. He was still in work clothes, a simple black suit from the 'Department in the Affairs of Other Worlds'. Basically, they monitored things coming and leaving in their world, and that crashed ship had not been on the list so they had no clue where it came from.

"Sora doesn't have any records in Twilight Town either, so that means he's from a different world." Cloud left whatever else he was going to say unspoken, since the other stuff was fairly obvious. Sora might not be able to go home because of the barriers between the worlds.

"Then I guess Sora will have to start anew here, be adopted since he can't live alone. He's only six." Aerith sighed. This was going to turn out to be one of those things where it was easy to day, but harder to do; she just knew it.

"We have to go to the Mayor about this first. I'll talk to him tomorrow, and see what will happen to Sora after that." Cloud put an end to the conversation.

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Roxas looked at the ceiling in his room. He was currently lying on his back in his bed, the covers up and his hands behind his head. Bedtime had been a while ago, and he needed to go to sleep soon since he still had school tomorrow. Problem was, too many thought were in his head, most of them about Sora.

Roxas sighed, rolling over onto his side. _" Why can't I get him out of my head. It's not like it's my problem he's stuck here and can't go home. I just met him today, so why all this worry?" _

Closing his eyes again, and trying to fall asleep for the 20th time that night; he blocked out his thoughts by trying to maintain a blank mind. Didn't work too well as he soon had his eyes open and staring at his TV on his dresser. _"Maybe some TV will get my mind off things."_ Was worth a try.

Roxas got out of bed and turned on his TV, making sure the volume was low as to not alert his parents. He laid back down in bed, he watched some late night show that was on. It looked to be like Spongebob Squarepants. He didn't even like Spongebob, but here he was watching it. He would've changed it, if he wasn't so lazy and wanted to stay lying down. _"It's not that bad. Besides…"_

Roxas fell asleep.

In the hospital that was blocks from Roxas's house, Sora fell asleep watching Spongebob also.


	4. Idea!

**Authors Notes:** Sorry for taking so long in updating. I just couldn't find inspiration till now. So now I will give cookies to everyone who reads my fic. Throws cookies to everyone

And to those who reviewed! An extra cookie! Throws cookies to reviewers You guys kept me wanting to write. And of course Destiny (My beta-reader) would kill me if I stopped writing the story. Now I'll stop my rambling and get to the disclaimer.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and I never will. This is just a fic I got inspired to write for a variety of reasons. I'm not making money off of this and it is only for the pleasure of writing my ideas out for others to see. Enjoy! (Has anyone noticed I just keep putting the same disclaimer up? It's just a question. Hehe…)

**Chapter 4: Idea!**

"Sora. Sora it's time to get up." A light shaking entered the boy's senses again, awakening him from his nice dream. Sora wasn't going to give up on staying asleep for as long as he could, and proceeded to ignore whoever was shaking him by burrowing further into his pillow.

"Sora, we can sit here and do this all morning. Time to get up." The voice just wouldn't go away, would it? Neither would the shaking. Was he never going to be allowed to sleep as long as he wanted here?

"Mm." Sora tried to respond back by saying 'no', but his mouth wasn't exactly functioning fully yet.

"Come on Sora. Up, up, up!" The voice, actually the person the voice belonged to, shook Sora a bit harder to get the boy up.

Sora, seeing that he was going to get bugged and bugged till he did get up, shifted to look up at the offending person. He had to bring up one of his hands to shield his eyes as when he tried to open them a few seconds before, the light in the room had been a bit too bright for his senses to handle at the moment. "Metish?" he meant to say 'Aerith', but his mouth, once again, wasn't fully up to speed with his brain.

His brain wasn't fully up to speed in the first place.

"Nice to see you've joined the living again. I was waking you for breakfast and some more yummy medicine. Don't need you to starve or not get better." Aerith said with a smile. She stood up from where she was sitting next to Sora on the bed, walking to the table that had been full of tools and things yesterday, that today was full of food and…of course, medicine!

"Medicine don't taste yummy." Sora stated, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes to get rid of sleep. When had Aerith decided to show up here?

"No, I guess it doesn't, but you still need it. Now be a good boy and take your medicine." Aerith answered, sitting next to Sora again with a spoon filled with medicine in her hands.

"No! I don't wanna be a good boy." Sora shook his head. He already had medicine yesterday! Why'd he need more again today?

"Sora, you need your medicine." Aerith tried to reason with the boy.

"No I don't!" Sora protested right back, crossing his arms in front of him and pouting.

Aerith giggled a few times at how cute Sora looked just then; pouting about taking a bit of medicine. She guessed he wasn't the best morning person, but then again; she didn't know a morning person except for herself. Neither her son nor husband was very articulate in the morning. So she went with a method that usually worked on little kids.

"Here comes the airplane." Aerith stated, holding up the spoon before 'flying' it in circles.

"Huh? Where?" Sora questioned, instantly waking up enough to take a hold on the situation, glancing around him before spotting the spoon 'flying' in front of him. "Oh."

"Requesting for landing." Aerith stated further with a smile, 'flying' the spoon towards Sora. This time, the boy reacted and took his medicine thanks to the 'flying' airplane/spoon.

"Was that so bad?" Aerith questioned after making sure Sora had swallowed his medicine.

"Yes." Sora answered bluntly, making a face at the taste of the medicine.

Aerith laughed. "Well, now you can wash the taste away with breakfast."

Sora decided to forget about the medicine at the mention of having breakfast.

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"I can't believe that. Sora has an imaginary friend. How cute is that!" Olette was still going on about the adventure from yesterday. She's told Hayner and Pence about what happened at the hospital. Hayner and Pence had told them what happened at the crime scene. They had said that the police came and they were told to leave after giving information on what they saw happen. From there, they were to go back home. So they really didn't have news.

"And then he did the question and answer thing with Roxas and it was so cute!" Olette ranted a bit more about yesterday. The boys had known to just nod their heads by now at what Olette was saying.

"The kid had an imaginary friend?" Hayner questioned, looking to Roxas for the answer then rambling Olette. Hayner was currently dressed in his usual clothing. The shirt with the skull among other things on it, the light green; or was it tan; vest over it, complete with the somewhat army pants that were more like Capri's, and the white and black shoes.

"Yeah. I think he said she was named Firelight." Roxas answered with a wave of his hand. They were currently all in the lunchroom for lunch; and he would've loved nothing better then get to his own lunch then ramble on about yesterday.

"The imaginary friend was a girl?" Hayner questioned further.

"Yeah. Sora said 'she', and 'she' implies a girl." Roxas answered. "Why, is something wrong with that?" Yep, read that one clearly.

"Well, he's a guy. You'd think he'd have a guy imaginary friend." Hayner reasoned.

"Roxas had an imaginary girl for a friend." Pence put in, getting Roxas to look up at him with a confused expression.

Pence was dressed in a white sweater overlapped by a vest that said DOGSTREET on it, and a skeleton of a dog. His jeans were blue and his shoes were blue and white.

"I did?" Roxas questioned. When did he have an imaginary friend?

"Don't you remember? I think you said her name was Crystal." Olette jumped in on the conversation.

"Oh right, Crystal. I'd forgotten." Roxas admitted.

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_(Flashback)_

_It was back in Kindergarten; where times seemed easy to the kids there with big imaginations and even bigger dreams._

_A miniature Roxas sat on a circle carpet that looked like a bulls eye with the different colors. Little Roxas looked like the exact replica of little Sora, except with blonde hair, and a little bit different taste in the clothes he wore. He still had the red shorts, but he had black tennis shoes on instead of sandals, and his shirt was all white. Interesting combination of colors, but then again, when little you just put on what you liked._

_Building blocks were set up in front of him in a form of a house, or at least that's what little Roxas was aiming for. _

_A familiar brown-haired girl was next to him. Olette in a simple peach dress, with little design flowers in white towards the bottom of the dress. She was wearing peach sandals to go with the dress._

_Children's laughter was echoing in the back round, but the picture was on Roxas and Olette. _

_Oh, and one other person, or thing. A light blue glowing was coming from the shoulder of little Roxas, a pixie._

_"Almost done!" Olette said enthusiastically, putting a red triangle block onto the top of the structure, smiling happily._

_"And now for a person." Roxas put in, placing an orange rectangle block in front of the 'house.'_

_"Looks nice." The pixie put in, flying off Roxas's shoulder and hovering in front of it. _

_"Crystal says it looks nice." Roxas said to Olette, since she couldn't see Crystal, making the girl giggle._

_"Yay! Now lets build a car for the person!" Olette already started the car with a blue square block right in front of the person._

_"Yeah." Roxas agreed, getting a few small black square cubes for the tires._

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

"Roxas?" Olette questioned, waving a hand in front of her friends face.

"Huh?" Roxas blinked, looking at Olette with a questioning glance.

"Go into daydream land?" Hanyer asked with sarcasm.

"Oh!" Roxas cried out, finally getting why his friends were giving him curios glances. "Sorry. I was just remembering Crystal was all." He apologized quickly, rubbing the back of his head in a bit of embarrassment.

"No problem. You just had us scared for a moment there." Pence answered with a nod.

Roxas sighed, and thanked his lucky stars the bell rang a second later to dismiss them to class. He wasn't sure he could handle the awkward silence that had befallen the group after what Pence had said. "See you guys in class." Roxas said as he dismissed himself quickly, throwing away the food uneaten before leaving the cafeteria.

His friends had nodded at what he had said, following what he did since they too, had to get to class.

Roxas sighed again once he reached his locker, opening it up to gather his materials for the next class.

_"It's been a long time since I saw Crystal. The last time I remember was when I was eight. Seven years since I've even seen her. Wonder what that pixie is up to? Or what my friends would think if I told them my 'imaginary' friend was real?"_ Roxas thought, chuckling at a mental image of Hanyer and Pence freaking out. Olette, he thought for some reason, would just be accepting of it; like she already knew pixies existed.

"Yeah right." Roxas said to himself, closing his locker and heading off to his next class.

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Cloud sat across from his boss, back in work clothes, which was only natural since he was at work. Everyone was in work clothes here.

A friend was next to him to discuss what was to be done with Sora: Squall Lionheart. His friend went by 'Leon' these days, saying that he wouldn't take his old name back till the heartless were rid from the worlds.

Of course Cloud knew all about the heartless, being a veteran in fighting them since he was a kid. Leon was a veteran also, since they had fought together at some point in time. The 'Department in the Affairs of Other Worlds', because of their knowledge in fighting the heartless, had employed them both. The DAOF didn't just keep track of Gummi Ships going in and out of Twilight Town, but the rate of heartless in the different worlds. The DAOF wasn't just in Twilight Town, but was in many different worlds where they worked together to try to bring down the numbers of the heartless.

The keeping track of the heartless was a secret they kept within the company, so they didn't panic the residents of the different worlds.

Unfortunately, their plans had seemed to back fired since the heartless were increasing instead of decreasing.

Leon had said he read somewhere about a 'key' being the way to get rid of most of the heartless; but his prophecy went unnoticed by most except his friends who knew Leon would not kid about such things. Leon had said he'd find out more and pledged to prove his point in this war. Cloud didn't doubt he would.

They had had a meeting early about the worlds being separated by barriers again, and Leon had said it was the best thing to happen at the moment. It meant the heartless would be stuck, since the barriers would keep them in one place also. Luckily for the worlds, the heartless had been in abandoned places when the barriers had gone up. Cloud had put in maybe they had been planning something, but now that backfired from the barriers.

The others called them crazy for thinking such things.

Leon and Cloud had agreed with each other though, so that was all that had mattered. Leon and Cloud knew what they were talking about when it came to heartless, the others were just amateurs.

Back to planning where Sora would be.

"We have a problem. The only orphanage in town is full of kids. Putting one more kid there before adoption day, and it'd be over capacity." Mr. Pretzel explained. Cloud had almost started laughing the first time he was introduced to Mr. Pretzel, remembering a comment Roxas had made about Pretzels one time.

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_(Flashback)_

"_Why aren't you eating your pretzel?" A Cloud asked his son at the table in the middle of the kitchen._

"_Because its old and salty!" an eight-year old Roxas complained, making a face at the pretzel on his plate._

_The way Roxas had said it was enough to make a few laughs escape from Cloud. It had been sitting in the fridge for at least two days. "Alright then, lets see what you can have for lunch." He suggested instead: Roxas nodding in agreement._

_--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

"What do you suggest we do then?" Leon questioned, getting to the point right away.

"Well, maybe find a family Sora can live with for a few weeks once he gets out of the hospital. It'll only be temporary, till adoption day. Then he'd be off your hands and into the city's hands again." Mr. Pretzel explained calmly. Cloud and Leon knew exactly what Mr. Pretzel was getting at. He'd said 'your hands'; meaning he was planning on putting Sora with one of them for a few weeks.

Not a bad choice considering Leon had a daughter around Sora's age and a wife to watch Sora, and Cloud had a teenage son who would be able to watch Sora while he and his wife was at work.

Not to mention they were the ones who actually had experience in the field with heartless. Mr. Pretzel might've thought Sora and the heartless were connected maybe.

Cloud looked at Leon.

Leon looked right back at Cloud.

"He can do it. I'll be gone with my family on vacation to the other side of Twilight Town for two weeks. It's all already planned and I've told you a few times that I'd be gone." Leon emitted with a small smile at the glare he was receiving from Cloud at the moment.

"_I am so going to kill Leon later for this."_ Cloud thought as he continued his glare at Leon.

"Oh, that's wonderful news. So he'll be going home with Mr. Strife then. Thank you sir, it's a worry I need not worry about." Mr. Pretzel said cheerfully.

"The pleasure is all mine." Cloud said back not so cheerful. Great, stuck with another kid. He already went through having a six year old in his life; he did not need to go through it a second time. Not that he didn't love Roxas, because he did, just Roxas had been a handful for a six-year old, and here they might go through it again.

The phone ringing on Cloud's boss's desk interrupted whatever else might've been said.

"Hello?" Mr. Pretzel said, answering the phone. "Mm-hm. I see. No, I'll tell them right away. Don't worry, I found a place for Sora to stay. Thanks for your help. Bye." Mr. Pretzel put down the phone again, looking back at Cloud and Leon.

"Seems they found out what might've been the cause for the Gummi Ship crash. A few heartless were found lurking around the ship just now. They think they may have been the cause for the fire starting. Mr. Lionheart. Could you go check it out for me? I need to say a few things to Mr. Strife before he goes back to his duties anyway." Mr. Pretzel explained and asked.

"Of course Mr. Pretzel." Leon stated formally, standing up and nodding to his goodbyes from Cloud and Mr. Pretzel before he left the room.

"What was it you wanted to talk to me about then?" Cloud questioned, looking from the door back to Mr. Pretzel.

"Well, I have some concerns. Sora…"

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Leon waited just down the hall for Cloud to come out from Mr. Pretzel's 'talk'.

His friend came out a few minutes later and Leon pushed away from the wall he had been leaning on. "So what'd he have to say?"

"Just what you thought. He thinks Sora has some kind of connection with the heartless and the barriers going up. He chose us because we have experience with heartless and wants me to keep a close watch on him." Cloud explained walking past his friend down the hall.

"Now lets see this Gummi ship with the heartless." Cloud passed off their conversation with a wave of his hand. Leon nodded and started to follow after his friend.


	5. The News is Told

**Author's Notes:**Sorry I haven't updated till now. School came into play and I finally had enough time to write out the next part. I'll try to update soon, but with school, will see. Enough of my rambling and enjoy the next part of _"Living a New Life!"_ Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **You should get the idea by now. I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and probably never will. This fic is just for fun, and there is no profit being made off of it. Enjoy!

**Chapter 5: The News is Told:**

"_Sora's gone."_

"_Sora's gone? What do you mean?"_

* * *

A familiar young boy sat, dangling his feet of the side of a building it seemed, happily looking out at the scenery. With is being sunset again, and him having missed yesterdays, his bright eyes were focused ahead on the colors dancing across the sky, creating some type of rainbow…without the rain. He'd been up here for a while, sitting around and waiting for the stars to take up the sky. 

Of course the small boy had been bored waiting for it, watching seagulls fly pass in amusement.

* * *

_"I checked his room a few minutes ago. He wasn't in it."_

_"Well, we have to find him then."_

* * *

The minute the boy had noticed it had started to get darker and darker, the sun disappearing behind the horizon, he had taken his perch about the small wall that jutted itself up from the building under him, making the perfect seat to watch this. It also had a great view. The green sea, as Sora had started to call it since it looked green from far away and he didn't know the real name of it, seem to have a sparkle to it. Ending the day with a smile of sparkles as the last rays bounced off of its surfaces. 

The chill in the air was picking up now that the warmth from the sun was gone; the day was cooling into night. It hardly bugged the brunette eagerly watching the sun set right before his eyes. Not having his memory, it seemed like the first time he was seeing this. Once more, he would be able to remember this moment of watching the sun meet the sea and disappear underneath it. With no reason to suspect the world was round at the moment, and still full of imagination, that's where Sora guessed the sun disappeared to every night. Of course he was wrong, but he wouldn't figure that out till later.

It didn't even occur to what havoc his disappearance was creating in the hospital below him.

* * *

"We've looked everywhere or that boy." 

"He had a name, Sora. Maybe that's why you didn't find him, because you didn't call his name."

"Stop fighting you two. Fighting won't bring back our lost patient." Aerith put in calmly, putting an abrupt end to the bickering her associates were indulging in at the moment. They had discovered that Sora, their newest patient, had suddenly disappeared from him room around a half hour ago, and had been searching tediously through the whole hospital to find the boy. They had only gotten through half of the hospital, so to here they checked everywhere was quite wrong.

Besides, if they had checked everywhere, they'd have found Sora by now. So the conclusion was, they were somewhere Sora was that they hadn't checked yet.

* * *

Sora now noticed the wind, since the sun had completely disappeared from view now, the lasting rays of light slowly turning into darkness. Better get inside before it got completely dark, and he was let outside in it. It wasn't as if Sora was afraid of the dark, so to say, but just very, very warily about it. Or to say, he was in fact afraid of the dark. It was a common scare for six year olds to have 

Sora pursued his lips in thought for a moment, though there was nothing really to think about. The hospital outfit wasn't going to keep him warm from the night's cool air, and it was getting dark. He came to the conclusion that too, it was time to go back inside. Swinging his legs back over the makeshift seat, or edge of the building, and to the interior of the roof, he slid into a standing position, now completely safe since a small cement wall was between him and a fall over the building. The thought hadn't occurred to Sora, falling off a building, and it still didn't occur to the boy as he made his way over to where he remembered the door to be. After relocating the door's position on the roof, he opened it and went inside, escaping from the night chills and the increasing darkness with the warmth and light inside.

* * *

Aerith blinked a few times, looking behind her. She had just found Sora, or more to the point, Sora had just found them. It seemed like a accident of the boys part, because when he had bumped into Aerith's leg from behind, he had let out a squeak of surprise as he had quickly looked up too see it was only his nurse, Aerith. 

"Oh, Mrs. Strife!" Sora let out in relief of some sort. He had thought he had bumped into something like a wall or table, not his nurse.

Aerith sighed in relief also, glad to have found her patient again. Ever since the boy had seen her nametag, he had resorted to calling her 'Mrs. Strife', rather then Aerith like she had said he could call her in the first place. She couldn't say it was annoying; it just made her sound old. It also could have later effects, as when on a first name basis; you could be more open with your nurse. It was all psychological stuff that Aerith didn't want to think about at the moment. She'd work it out later at home.

"Sora, where have you been?" She questioned, keeping most of the sternness out of her voice, but she let some in by mistake. It had the same effect she thought it would have, as Sora lost the small smile he had been wearing a few seconds ago, becoming wary.

Sora wasn't becoming wary; he was just acting on instinct with how he was getting ready to dart away at the first sign…of something. What that something was, he wasn't sure. He wasn't exactly sure where this fear of Aerith suddenly came up from either. He hadn't been afraid of her a few minutes ago.

"I…um…up there." Sora answered hesitantly, trying to answer the question and just ending up pointing at the ceiling instead, since his mouth didn't want to cooperate with his brain at the moment.

Aerith glanced up for a second, before returning her gaze back down to Sora, once again trying to keep away from sternness. She had no reason to be really mad at the boy; he hadn't done anything wrong really. Probably didn't even know he had caused chaos down here.

"The ceiling?" She was going to make Sora say where he had been though.

"No…um…roof." Sora answered.

"And what were you doing up there?" Aerith questioned further, ignoring a comment of "Causing trouble, what else?" from one of her colleges behind her. She seemed to remember something then, and knelt down to Sora level so Sora wasn't looking up at her and she wasn't looking down on him. That way, maybe some of the intimidation would go away, because she didn't want to intimidate the boy and make him afraid of her.

Sora had been ready to dart away the moment he saw Aerith move, but luckily stayed in time to see that Aerith was only moving so she could be eye level with him…not because of…something else? He blinked a few times, before realizing she was awaiting an answer.

"Um…the sunset. I…wanted to see the sunset. But when I got up there, it wasn't sunset yet. So I watched the birds, but then it was sunset and it was cool! There were like a…a…bazillion colors! And the green sea was really shiny! And then it got dark, and the sun went under the water. So then I came back inside. It was cool though! Did you see the sunset?" Sora had started off hesitant, but by the end he had gained back whatever happiness he had gotten from watching the sunset. His smile was back, and the feelings of wariness went away and he added hand motions and emotions to what he had just rambled on about, ending in a questioning glance at his nurse.

Aerith smiled. So Sora had only wanted to see the sunset. Ha! Like he was making trouble, take that Juliet, he hadn't been causing trouble. And he had been in one place they wouldn't have looked, the roof. Why they never checked there, she didn't know. She would check there first next time though. "No, I didn't see the sunset today. I've seen other sunsets though, so I know what you mean by the colors and everything." She answered cheerfully, hearing Juliet, her college who had been helping her search for Sora, snort something that sounded close to swearing but not quite, since they were in a hospital, before walking off.

Rosa, the other nurse who had also helped search and had bright red hair and brown eyes, opposite to Juliet who had had blonde hair and green eyes, looked between her two friends and smiled. Just another days work in the day of a nurse. "Hey, I'm going to go check to make sure the kids are getting ready for bed and calming down, so take care of Sora. See you back at the desk." Rosa said goodbye cheerfully, waving before following after Juliet.

Sora had been about to say something in reply to his nurse, before noticing the nurses that were behind Aerith. "Night!" He called after then, only getting an acknowledgement that anyone had heard him from Rosa. Juliet said nothing, but that was okay.

"Speaking of bedtime, you better be getting back to you room. You didn't sleep during nap time today, so you must be tired." Aerith said, returning Sora's attention back to her.

"Aw…bedtime already? But the sun just went down." Sora complained in a whine, added in a pout unconsciously.

"Yes, but it is close to summer meaning the sun goes down around 8 or 9, meaning bedtime for you." Aerith argued back with her case. The puppy pout wouldn't work on her here, been working with kids to long not to grown a bit of immunity from those things.

"Do I have to?" Sora questioned further, his pout increasing if it was possible.

"Yes, you do Sora." Aerith answered patiently.

Sora gave a long sigh. "Okay, if I have to I guess I can go to bed." He said with absolute loathing. Aerith would be surprised if Sora actually wanted to go to bed, since the little kids she knew wouldn't want to. Aerith only smiled again, before picking up the pouting kid and cradling him like a baby, which surprised Sora.

"Um…" Sora blinked, finding himself in the position he was in.

"Well, if you keep pouting…I'm just going to have to tickle you." Aerith said happily, before mercilessly tickling little Sora, making him shriek and giggle in delight as he squirmed in his nurse's arms, trying to get away from tickling fingers. Aerith stopped after a time.

"Done being pouty?" She asked the still giggling boy in her arms. Sora was still trying to calm down from laughing too much. He couldn't answer till they had subsided more.

"Maybe." He answered, back into a good mood now.

"Maybe isn't a very good answer. Maybe I have to tickle you more." Aerith mused, laughing when she heard Sora's response.

"No! No more! Too much!" Sora replied quickly, gaining a look of panic as he waved his hands not wanting to be tickled again.

"Will you go to bed then?" Aerith questioned sweetly. Obviously Sora didn't catch on to the little trick she just played on him so he would go to sleep.

Sora pursued his lips in thought again. Being tickled, or go to bed. Being tickled, or going to bed? He was going to bed no matter what anyways, so bed would be good. Even if he wouldn't admit it, he was growing tired. "Okay, bed I guess." He answered with a hint of loathing in his voice.

Aerith smiled down at the boy again, before carrying him back to his room so he could do just as he said he would, go to bed. She walked down the hall, past Rosa and Juliet dealing with the other kids in the one room. Sora would hopefully be moving into that room so he was with other kids then in the lonely room he was in now. They scheduled that for tomorrow, since most of the tests for Sora should be back by then.

* * *

"Goodnight Sora." Aerith said quietly, as she had arrived at her patient's room a few minutes ago and was tucking him into bed now. The whole way back to his room he had chatted a bit, but she had seen that sleep was slowly taking the boy over. He'd be out in a few minutes once they got him into bed, surely full of dreams of seeing the sunset thanks to the kid's adventures for the day. 

"Night." Sora replied, a bit quieter then he had been talking before, taking a deep breath before closing his eyes. Back in a bed, he noticed he was quite tired. Aerith smiled and left the room, closing the door quietly behind her. One rowdy kid to sleep, more to go as Rosa and Juliet had seemed to have a few problems with getting their kids to bed. Aerith sighed, regaining some energy before walking back the way she came so she could help her friends out. This shouldn't take too long.

* * *

Aerith sighed, along with her co-workers as they took their seat back at the desk. It had taken them a half hour to get the little ones into bed. Someone had given them candy right before bed, they found out. Candy and bed don't go together, and now one of the nurses would have to make sure that the kids were going to bed and not getting out of it. 

"Good luck Rosa." Aerith said. He shift was just about over for today. She had worked later then she usually did, but that was because of the Sora problem, or lack there of. Now she was looking forward to getting home, Roxas no doubt still working on his last minute homework for school. With exams just around the corner, it was a wonder her son found anytime with his friends it seemed. Cloud seemed to be starting to have the same problem with the barriers going up between the worlds. Last night was just a preview.

"Thanks, I'll need it." Rosa replied, before sighing and leaving to check on the children again.

Aerith turned to Juliet then. "You get a good nights rest, and than maybe you won't be so grumpy again." She said in a joking manner, gaining a "Yeah, sure," From Juliet. Aerith smiled, before grabbing her brief case filled full of papers she needed to go over within the next week, and starting to walk off. "Take care, night." She called back to Juliet, receiving a goodbye in return as she left.

While she was leaving though, a thought occurred to her. All this stuff that was beginning to go on was started with the arrival of Sora.

* * *

Cloud was in a predicament. He was pacing back and forth in the living room, waiting for his wife to arrive home so he could tell her the 'big news' he had learned at work. He would have to tell his son also, who was studying upstairs at the moment for tests and exams. Thanks to his wife not being home, they had had pizza, and luckily none of them had burned it this time around. Aerith would be proud. Cloud wasn't thinking about the pizza, though it had been quite good, he had something else to think about. 

How exactly he was going to break the 'big news.' He swore his boss better give him a raise for this. Taking care of Roxas wasn't easy, but now they'd be taking care of two kids it seemed, at least for a while. How was he supposed to act around Sora? How was he suppose to watch the boy, and if the boy was dangerous, without arousing suspicion? How would this affect life for a while? How would his wife and son react to this? In conclusion, Cloud had way too many questions running through his head and not enough answers to suffice him. To make it even worse, he didn't really even know Sora, just what his wife and son had told him about the kid.

Cloud paused in his pacing, bringing up a hand to his forehead as if he had a headache. He was surprised he didn't from all the thinking he was doing about this situation. Maybe he was blowing it out of proportion? Maybe it wasn't a big deal? Maybe- Cloud paused in his thoughts, hearing a car pull up into the driveway signaling the arrival of his wife. Cloud could only sigh and sit down on the couch, composing him self to tell the news.

When Aerith walked in the door, Cloud only said three words. "Go get Roxas."

* * *

'_Lets see, x+47. So then x3 because 7 minus 4 equals 3.' _Roxas thought through his math problem, smiling and writing his answer down. Man, this homework was taking a long time. It hadn't been this long at the beginning of the year. Then, of course, he had to take the tests into account, and that took up a good chunk of his time. After having his flashback at school, the rest of the day had passed in a blur, going by too fast for him to keep up. Now that he was at home, it had slowed down a bit again, but time seemed to be against him this night as it was almost ten, and he wasn't done with his homework. 

He glanced up from his homework, interrupted by a knock coming from his bedroom door. "Come in." He called, glancing down at his homework again, hearing the door open and the sound of his mother's voice. Good, she was home. No need to worry about her working too late then.

"Still working on homework?" She said softly, walking up behind Roxas and giving her son a hug from behind.

"Yep. Almost done though." Roxas replied a bit distracted since he was doing him homework._ ' If 3x+ 520, then x'_

"Hey, I think your father has something to tell us so do you think you could come down now?"

'_5. Wait a moment?'_

Roxas blinked a few times. "Huh? I missed what you said." Roxas said, his concentration on his math broken instantly as he looked up at his mom the best he could from his position. His dad had something to tell them?

"I said I think your father has something to tell us. He's tense and the moment, and said to get you, so finish up your problem and come down, alright?" Aerith repeated.

'_Thought that was what she said.'_ "Sure, be down in a moment." Roxas replied easily, giving a small smile to his mom as he felt her let him go. He watched her walk out of her room, thinking of things his father could possibly want to talk to them about. Nothing he thought about came close to the truth though. Roxas sighed, looking down at his math to write out the answer to the problem he had just figured out. He debated, for a second, if he should do another problem before going down, but found his curiosity too much and decided to finish his homework after the discussion.

Roxas sighed, pushing back away from his table and standing up. He walked over to the door his mom had just gone through a few minutes ago, and disappeared through them himself this time, to find out what exactly his dad had to say to them.

* * *

Roxas found the living room to be full of tension once he arrived in there. Whatever his father had to say, it couldn't have been all that good. He sat on the loveseat, while both his parents were on the couch. To say that Roxas was feeling awkward was an understatement. To say Roxas was feeling really, really, really awkward would've been on target. His father seemed to be debating some decision in his mind about what to say first, while his mom kept looking between him and his dad with looks of curiosity and worry. Roxas was just confused, and feeling awkward. He'd rather be studying then in this tense room, and that was saying something. 

His father seemed to reach a conclusion though, as he spoke a second later surprising Roxas enough to see the younger blonde jump a few inches out of his skin, figuratively. His mom only averted her full attention onto her husband.

"You both know Sora right?" Cloud started off.

Roxas almost said 'duh', but withheld that for a later time. This didn't seem like the time to be throwing out jokes and wise cracks.

"Yes." Aerith answered instead.

"Well…we seem to be having a problem at work. There isn't enough room at the orphanage, and that would be where Sora would have to go to get adopted since he can't live along because he's six. That and we don't know how long it will be till the barriers between the worlds would be broken. Sora's adoption would only be final with his consent, but that will be a topic for later." Cloud seemed to pause again, thinking on what to say next. The pausing only made Roxas's curiosity soar even more. What was his dad getting at?

"So since there isn't enough room, the boss got it into his head that he should stay with someone till there was enough room. A few weeks at most he said. He also said it would be a good idea to keep an eye on Sora since we don't know him and he could have some sort of connection with the heartless." Cloud paused, holding up a hand to stop his wife's protests. Adding on quickly: "It's not what I'm saying, it's what my boss is." And that seemed to stop Aerith from throwing her consent it.

"Well…I vow to talk to Mr. Pretzel about being bias." She put in determinedly, and Roxas had no doubt that she wouldn't do that, because she would. It was one of the things he liked about his mom. He couldn't help but feel anxiety, because he was pretty sure his dad had more to say then that.

"And?" Roxas finally put in, seeing that a silence almost settled around them.

Cloud seemed to take even longer in answering, before sighing and finally letting out what needed to be said. "He chose us to take Sora in." He doubted he had to say much more then that to get his point across. The shocked look on his wife and son's faces were enough. That was the way Cloud about the whole entire situation also. Shocked, and now even more stressed.

* * *

Roxas could only blink, even after he had been informed of this new development for a span of ten minutes now. His father had gone to bed, saying he had to get a good nights rest before a hectic day tomorrow. His mom had agreed and went to bed also, leaving him to go back up to his room to finish his homework. 

He highly doubted his parents were sleeping in the room across the hall. They were probably discussing the problem at hand, not sleeping. He had to get his mind off the shock for at least another fifteen minutes though, and he knew why. He still had a few math problem left.

Roxas sighed, sitting at his desk and staring down at the paper in front of him, trying to get his mind off this new problem long enough so that he could finish his math and go to bed.

'_Lets see, x+510, so Sora is living with us. No, that not right. Sora is living with us, but x…no, Sora isn't living with us yet. He's not really living with us, just staying here for a while till the orphanage has room again. Wait? What the problem again? Think Roxas, think! Gah…now you're talking to yourself again, and getting off track. Gr…x+510, so 5, wait no, x5. Yes, that's right. Now just write the answer down and go the next one.'_ It was easy to say that getting the rest of his math done was not an easy task with a distracted Roxas. But get it done he did, though it took a half an hour rather then the fifteen minutes he had planned.

Going to bed was no easier.

After brushing his teeth and doing all the things he did before going to bed, he once again found himself…unable to sleep. Now with even more thoughts of the boy he had rescued only yesterday. The way this kid kept entering his thoughts was annoying, and strange. He didn't think he ever thought this much about someone, except for Olette. That was for a different reason though! That was…because…because…Roxas sighed. Even in his thoughts he would hardly admit the feelings he had for that girl.

Roxas lied in bed once again, the TV off and everything, staring at the ceiling covered in darkness. He doubted the TV would help him sleep tonight, there were way to many thoughts in his head to be blocked out. These thoughts hadn't even been blocked out by homework, and it took a lot not to be blocked out by homework at least a little bit. He would just have to deal with the insomnia he had at the moment, the best way he could. Thinking…that's pretty much all he could do at the moment was think and think and think and…Roxas fell asleep.

There had been too much thinking and his brain had said sleep. That and he had he just thought himself to sleep, if that was even possible. In Roxas's case, it was now.

* * *

Sora seemed to be having insomnia also, but for an entirely different reason. Remember that Sora was afraid of the dark, as most kids are his age. Well, Sora was dealing with his fear at the moment. Last night, the TV had been on providing enough light that he felt safe to fall asleep. This night, he had forgotten to ask for the TV to be turned on, as he had thought he was really tired and could fall asleep right away. His thinking proved out to be wrong, as he couldn't even fall asleep now. He just kept tossing and turning in bed, ducking under the covers to 'hide' from monsters, but then getting hot and poking his head out from under them again to glance around the room with fear. Who knew what monsters lurked in the shadows, Sora sure didn't. 

Whenever there was a noise, Sora would squeak in fear and duck under the blankets. Whenever there wasn't a noise for a few minutes, he'd feel anxiety since he knew another creak of groan of the hospital had to be coming soon. Footsteps of nurses walking by outside was the only noise relief Sora would take. All others and he'd be under the blanket in a minute.

This ducking and hiding under blankets, getting too hot and coming out again continued long into the night, until Sora's body finally enough and he fell asleep also. It wasn't an easy sleep, but Sora was asleep nonetheless. And so ended Sora first fearful night surrounded by darkness. What would take place tomorrow?


	6. Getting Prepared

**Authors Notes: **I'd like to dedicate this chapter to my beta reader Destiny, and to three of my reviewers. They are Anime-Luver101, KeybladerX, and hittocerebattosai. I wouldn't have been able to finish this chapter with out your reviews and encouragement from the last chapter. Sorry it took so long also, school kind of got busy on me.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of it's characters. This is just for fun and entertainment, and I only own the plot, nothing else. Well, except for a copy of the game and such, but not Kingdom Hearts.

**Chapter 6: Getting Prepared: **

Aerith sighed. She had hardly slept a wink last night, discussing what they were going to do next with her husband. From the look on her son's face, and the fact that he was falling asleep in his cereal, she doubted he had not had much sleep either. It was funny how things could change so much in a few choice words.

She turned away from her son, pouring herself a glass of orange juice before putting the carton back in the fridge. Bet you had been thinking that she'd be grabbing coffee. Aerith didn't drink that though, learning early on that it was addicting and just the way it shot you up in energy, and then dropped your energy even lower. She also hadn't wanted to be one of those parents that couldn't function right till they had coffee. Orange juice was so much more nutritious for you anyway.

Aerith stifled a yawn as she took a seat at the table, next to her son who jerked awake from her presence at the table, muttering something that sounded an awful like a 'hello.' "Morning to you also. Guess you didn't sleep much either."

"Yeah." Was all Roxas said in reply, going back to eating his cereal that was soggier then crunchy. The milk was definitely taking its toll on the poor cheerios. They used to be sweet and crunchy, but now were soggy and lost it's flavor to the milk, Roxas blinked a few times, wondering why the heck he was thinking about his poor cheerios. It wasn't like them being soggy really mattered. "Mm…I really need to wake up the rest of the way." Roxas muttered, bringing his hands up, and rubbing his face as if he was washing it in an attempt to do just what he wanted to do.

Aerith smiled lightly. "I think we all do. Even though your father won't admit it." She replied evenly, taking a sip of her juice. Cloud had already left for work, saying he had to work some things out there and didn't want to be home late again. She knew that he just wanted to talk to his boss about what to do about Sora and everything that was beginning to go on. It was the one problem they were all thinking about.

"Things are going to really change around here, aren't they?" Roxas questioned suddenly, his head titled to the side and resting in the palm of his right hand.

Aerith blinked at the questioned, looking over at Roxas, taking in her son's appearance. "Yes, for a little while." She answered a few moments later, with a small nod of her head. She blinked again though, glancing around till her eyes landed upon the clock. Time to go.

"Be good today, and try not to be too distracted." She said 'too distracted' because she knew Roxas would be distracted by this news. It was just the nature of the boy. She stood up from the table, downing the rest of her orange juice before placing the cup in the sink. She was about to walk out of the room when another question came from Roxas.

"I'm the one who's going to be babysitting, aren't I?"

Aerith gave another small smile. "Only when me and Cloud are at work. So…yes, you are going to be babysitting, Roxas." And she left with a wave of a hand, a quick hug, a fast kiss that Roxas tried to avoid, and a "Goodbye. Remember not to get too distracted. I still expect you to do good on your tests," before Aerith was gone with her briefcase and pulling out of the driveway in her car.

Roxas sighed. He was going to be a distracted today, no doubt about it.

* * *

"So what exactly is the plan again?" 

"Mr. Strife, we've gone over the plan a dozen times now. I will give you extra money to take care of Sora. I will assist you in any way possible in taking care of the child. I don't see why we must go over it over and over again."

"To make sure you remember what you are saying." Cloud stated defiantly, and his boss took on a look of understanding. Of course Mr. Strife would make sure he knew what he was saying, just in case he had to use it against him later.

"Still cautious about things?"

"Better safe then sorry."

"I see." Mr. Pretzel said. He sighed, turning in his chair slightly to reach into his desk. He opened a drawer and pulled out a piece of paper, putting in on the desk. He grabbed a pen also, and began writing.

"What are you doing?" Cloud questioned after a few minutes of busy scribbling from Mr. Pretzel.

"Writing out what I said for the plan so you can stop being paranoid." Was the answer from Mr. Pretzel.

Cloud nodded, turning to look around the office. Nothing much had changed during his stay in the business, aside from the pictures of Mr. Pretzel's kids from young to teenagers like his kid. It was kind of comforting, in a strange way. It was something that would stay the same in this ever-changing world.

"Mr. Strife."

Cloud puckered his lips in though, trying to remember something from his past. He always told himself not to live in the past, and yet here he was thinking about it again. Not that it could be help. Memories just popped up when you were bored.

"Mr. Strife!"

Cloud blinked slowly, refocusing himself on the present again as he glanced back over at his boss.

"Thinking." Was all Cloud said to the unasked question. His boss nodded, holding out the piece of paper. "Here ya go." He said cheerfully, and Cloud accepted it without another world.

"Everything alright?"

"As right as it can be." Cloud answered, before standing up and exiting from the office.

His boss sighed, leaning back in his chair. "I sure hope so." He said quietly, before shaking his head and getting back to work.

* * *

"Oh sh-" 

"Roxas!"

"What, I was going to say shoot?"

"Oh." Olette replied, blushing slightly. She had thought Roxas was about to say a swear word, which wasn't uncommon in casual talk during High School. She just didn't like it and didn't approve of her friends using it. She shook her head though, looking back up at her friend.

They were currently in Physical Science, the science class offered for their freshman class. Roxas, being unlucky, had forgotten that they had a test today. He was currently wearing a pouty face, probably cursing himself out for forgetting.

"Hey, it happens to the best of us. It shouldn't be too hard. It's what we've been going over for the past few days." She assured her friend, getting a small nod in response.

"Yeah, your right." He added in quietly, looking up when the teacher started to hand out the tests, giving out instructions. "I hope." He added on even quieter. So quiet, that Olette hadn't caught what he said as she wrote out her name on her test.

* * *

"Did anyone else think that science test was hard. I certainly did." Hayner demanded, looking at the others at the lunch table. 

"I thought it was easy." Olette answered casually, she was working on some stray homework. Finding definitions to words or something.

"It was okay. Did you study at all Hayner?" Pence commented, eating his lunch from the school. Thanks that the high school lunch was better then elementary.

"No, I didn't have time." Hayner's usually excuse made itself known. He was probably practicing struggling in reality.

"The struggle tournament isn't till the end off summer, so you can't use that excuse." Olette cut in.

Hayner glared slightly, before turning to look over at Roxas who hadn't answered. He seemed awfully out of it today, as he was staring out the windows on the other side of the cafeteria, not really paying much mind to what they were saying. "Well, what about you Roxas?" He questioned.

"Huh?" Roxas answered, a bit startled as he came out of his daze, meeting Hayner's gaze. "What was it we were talking about?"

"The science test. What did you think of it?" Hayner repeated, using a hand gesture to further indicate what he was saying.

"Oh, it was fine." Roxas answered, before turning to look away again.

Hayner glanced over at Olette and Pence, both of them shrugging their shoulders in response. Hayner sighed and looked back over at Roxas. "Hey man, is something wrong?" He decided to question.

"Hm…? No." Roxas replied distractedly, still not looking back at his friends.

"You sure? You seem off today?" Olette questioned further, a bit worried.

"Yep." Came Roxas's one worded reply.

"You know, we can't help you unless you tell us what the problem is." Hayner interjected, and leaned forward so he could look more closely at Roxas.

"Nothing's wrong." Roxas insisted, turning slightly to finally look back at his friends.

"Your bad at lying to your friends, I hope you know." Pence said cheerfully, getting into the conversation also.

Roxas narrowed his eyes slightly, but sighed. They were right, he was bad at lying to them.

"So…?" Olette let the question hang.

"You know Sora?" Roxas started out, turning fully into the table and looking down at its surface. Hm…it was still a bit wet from when it was last cleaned. How often did they clean these tables?

"The boy from the crash? What about him?" Hayner further asked.

"Well…" Roxas took a deep breath before continuing, "…turns out he's coming to live at my house for a few weeks at most!"

His friends blinked at him, and Roxas was afraid for a moment that they hadn't caught what he said. He had said that rather fast.

"Wait? Sora's living with you?" Olette was the first to recover.

"Will be living with us." Roxas corrected.

"When?" Hayner.

"Don't know, soon." Came Roxas's readily reply, since he really didn't know yet either.

"Why?" Pence.

"Something about the Orphanage being overcrowded and Sora maybe having a connection to the heartless." Roxas answered with a bit of uncertainty. What was he to add to that?

"Hm…well. I guess this will be interesting." Olette said cheerfully, smiling again. The boys could only groan at this. Olette was going somewhere with that. They were sure of that.

* * *

Turns out that Olette had started to plan play dates. She had a younger sister also, and she said that Sora would be welcome to come play with her. Hayner had agreed to it also, since he also had a younger brother. Pence was the only without a younger sibling, but he said he would come along anyway, just to keep company. 

That exact play date would be planned when Sora finally did move in for a while, and Roxas knew that would be the first question he asked his mom or dad once he came in the door. He was at home now, after being walked home by Olette. She had said she had to watch out for him because he was so out of it, he had almost got run over by a garbage can. Roxas was actually the one running into the garbage can, but she had changed it around to turn it into a joke. Roxas had laughed slightly, and just allowed her to do that.

Now he was restlessly sitting in the living room, awaiting the return of one of his parents.

* * *

Aerith glanced over at Sora again. Sora had finally been moved in the children's ward, and seemed to be getting on okay with the other kids. Something was off though. He seemed a bit more tired, like he hadn't gotten a lot of sleep. When she'd asked about it to the nurses, they had said he was sound asleep anytime they checked on him. Aerith had even been sure Sora had fallen asleep when she left him last night. Then again, he didn't seem to be as hyper as he was yesterday. 

She wasn't the only one to notice it either. Juliet and Rosa, who had seen the display yesterday, had noticed it too. They said maybe it was an off day, and she hoped that was what it was.

She sighed, seeing the boy her thoughts were so concentrated on sitting by the window, just looking out of it. Why Sora wasn't playing with the other kids, seeing as they were running around wild, was beyond her. Not one of the kids seemed to notice either, too busy in their own worlds. She stood up from where she was sitting, leaving the three kids she had started to play with, now that they were now playing their own. She walked over by Sora, pulling up a chair and sitting next to said boy.

The tests had come back also for Sora. He had no injuries other then the ones being treated, no disease, and seemed to have the knowledge that kids his age did have. Nothing was out of the ordinary, other then he couldn't remember the past six years of his life. They'd tested for possible reasons why to that also, but nothing was popping up as a possible way as to why. It was still a mystery.

Sora glanced away from the window, over to look up at her. She smiled, getting a small smile in return before the boy started to yawn. She vaguely noticed that he had chose the window overlooking the sea.

"You tired?" Aerith questioned sweetly, cocking her head to the side in slight interest.

"No." Sora answered in response, shaking his head full of brown spikes. That was counteracted by another yawn.

"Maybe you should take a nap?" She suggested. "You know, to rest your eyes." She added on as an excuse. Trust a little kid to say he wasn't tired when he was.

"Hm…maybe." Sora agreed the slightest bit.

"Well, why don't you get into your bed then?" She questioned, slightly leading that Sora needed to do that to go to take a nap.

Sora glanced fully away from the window now, seeing all the other kids running around a playing, and shook his head. Aerith didn't have to guess as to why Sora refused. Maybe Sora wasn't getting as along with the other kids as she had hoped. He didn't want to do something different from them. Strange for a six-year old to be acting this way, but not out of the question. He was new here.

"Ah, I see." Aerith said, getting a confused look from Sora at her words. She smiled sweetly at him, before standing up and walking away. She could practically feel Sora watch her walk away with confused eyes. That only made her smile wider.

* * *

"Okay everyone, who wants to watch a movie." Aerith announced a few moments later, and smiled at the children who looked up. She pushed the cart with the movie stuff all set up on it into the room, as it wasn't often the kids got to watch movies. It was usually before bed that they did that, but today was going to be a special day, Aerith was going to make sure of it. Besides, the kids had been decent, and they absolutely loved the Pokemon movies that were coming out so rapidly. It was a brand new fad, so it was no surprise. 

"Oh! I wanna watch!" A little girl said enthusiastically, the other little kids she had been sitting with agreeing and moving over to the 'sitting area'. It wasn't really a sitting area, just a place with a bunch of couches and chairs for the kids to sit and read, like they ever did that. Only the older kids read in here, other then that, just play, play, play.

After getting most of the kids seated, and letting the others who wished not to watch the movie continue playing, she glanced up to see where Sora had gone. The boy in question was still sitting by the windowsill, but looking over to where she was, which was by all the sitting kids.

'_He's probably wondering what the heck is going on. Poor boy.'_ Aerith thought with a small laugh. This little boy might be moving into her home for a while thanks to bias concerns and other excuses, but that didn't mean she was going to hold it against him. Sora had no control in this situation, so how could she. She was the boy's nurse for crying out loud.

She turned to look away from Sora, looking back at the TV and placing the movie in the VCR. "Okay children, we'll let you watch the movie as long as you are quiet. No roughhousing with Max, Jimmy." Aerith paused, eyeing the two boys as they stopped wrestling with each other to look up at her with innocent eyes. "And be good." Was all she added before pressing play and leaving the kids to watch their movie. She however, walked back over by Sora.

"That should keep them quiet." Was all she said in comment to what she had done once she had taken her spot next to the boy again. He was still looking over where the TV was.

"What that?" He questioned, looking over at her expectantly now.

"Hm…oh, a pokemon movie. It's being played in the VCR, which is hooked up to the TV." Aerith almost had to stop and laugh at the totally confused face she was receiving from Sora at the moment. How long had it been since she had to explain the world to a little boy again? Oh right, when Roxas was young the last time.

"I think you should be getting a nap though. Time for questions later. Now, get into bed or do I have to tickle you again." She almost laughed again at Sora's small squeak before he did what she asked of him. Yes, the tickling threat worked once again!

Aerith smiled as she watched Sora crawl into one of the many beds, settling down for a nap. Maybe now Sora would be full of some energy when he woke up later. The poor boy had been losing energy all day, and would be out long before the others. Maybe this would counteract it.

"I have something to tell you when you wake up, so go to sleep." She added on as a little incentive for Sora to actually go asleep.

"Huh? What?" Sora asked, the confused face back on as he looked at her from his new place on the bed.

"You'll see when you wake up. So go to sleep so you can wake up faster." She shushed him afterwards at seeing he was going to say something else. She saw Sora pout slightly, before laying down and closing his eyes. Finally! A kid that didn't argue back.

Thought, that could've been from lack of sleep because when Aerith checked to make sure he was actually sleeping a few minutes later, he was out like a light.

* * *

Sora woke up again when the pokemon movie Aerith had started was nearly over. Blinking a few times to make sure he was at least somewhat of the way awake, he glanced around to take in his surroundings. After nearly freaking out for a moment because he didn't know where he was, he realized he was in the kid room and everything was fine. Sora took a deep breath, before sitting up in bed and glancing around once more. 

Kids watching the movie, a few playing with toys. Hm…toys! He wanted to play also! Sora pushed away his blankets, threw his legs over the side of the bed, and quickly got out of the bed he had been sleeping in a few minutes ago.

After a moment's decision of who to play with, he headed out of his little area towards them.

During his move from his own room to this room, he had acquired his own clothes back, which were brown sandals, red shorts with black pockets, and a plain white T-shirt with blue lining.

The boy he was heading towards had an outfit consisting of mostly black or blue colors. The boy had blue and white shoes, with blue and white armbands, a yellow shirt, and blue shorts that were a bit too long that they could also be considered to be almost pants. Not to mention the boy also had silver hair, a strange hair color for a person. Not that Sora cared, it was someone to play with.

This boy had been all alone in a different area of the room, a few cars of different shapes and colors spread out around him as he played quietly by himself. Sora had no real notion of why he went over by this particular boy, considering there were others to play with also, but he did.

"Hi!" Sora stated enthusiastically as he stopped right next to the kneeling boy. The silver-haired boy seemed to jump a few inches, and glanced up at Sora with a wild expression that quickly disappeared once he saw it was only Sora.

"Oops! Sorry!" Sora said, recognizing that he had surprised the other person, but it wasn't like he had really meant it.

"Hey." Was all the boy said back to him before looking back down at the cars and continuing to play.

Sora watched him for a moment, before kneeling down also so he wasn't towering over the other, not that he really could. Sora was six at the moment, and it wasn't like he was really tall or anything. More like he was small for his age.

"Can I play too?" Sora questioned.

"Sure." The other boy answered, pushing one of the cars over to Sora so he could play like he asked.

"Thanks." Sora said, as he accepted the car.

The two played in silence for a few minutes, before Sora didn't watch were he was steering his car and accidentally crashed it into the one the other boy had in his hands.

"Oh no! A car crash!" Sora exclaimed dramatically, moving his car about in its spot on the floor as he backed it up away from the other boy's car.

"Hey! Now you have to fix me!" The other boy replied, turning the car in his own hands to face Sora's retreated car.

"Yeah! But how would I do that!" Sora responded, moving his own car, which was red by the way, forward a bit before reversing the direction again.

"I dunno." The car in the other boy's hand responded, talking as if the car were real and Sora and him were not there. They were the cars. Ah, the power of imagination.

"Then how do I fix you?" Sora said through the red car.

The blue car, which was held by the other's hands responded. "Well, there is that mechanismicalily person. I think he can fix me!"

"Were can we find the mechanisticamal person?" Sora responded, moving his car forward so it was face to face with the others car. Neither of the boys could pronounce the word 'mechanic', nor did they know how it was truly said, making the game even more fun. Their playing of simple cars had turned into a game.

"Um…over there I thinks." The other boy responded, turning his car so he could move it away. He turned the car back though, adding on one more thing. "Oh, and I'm Riku." The blue car added on before Riku started to move his own car away from Sora's.

"I'm Sora." The red car responded, before Sora moved his own car to follow Riku's to where the mechanic person should be. No doubt finding that person would be part of their adventure.

* * *

"Well, what do you know." Juliet said as she had seen Aerith glancing around the children's ward, no doubt to find the boy she had left sleeping not too long ago. 

Aerith had come in just a few minutes earlier, but now she turned to look over at Juliet. "Know what?" She questioned, finding some meaning behind the tone Juliet was using.

"Looks who's playing with Riku." Was the only clue she gave to what she was saying. She titled her head towards the area where Riku was.

"Someone actually got Riku to interact with them?" Aerith asked, titling her head in confusion. Riku was a little boy here, about eight years old, who was just getting over a really bad cold. Being so young, and that Riku hadn't gotten better in a day, his mom had brought him here to be checked up upon. Turned out the poor boy had a really high fever, too high of a fever. So Riku had had to stay here for a few days to make sure he was getting better and the illness was gone.

Riku had only been allowed to join the children yesterday, now that he wasn't contagious anymore and most of the illness was gone. He'd be going home later on today, after his mom picked him up after work.

His time in the children's ward was brief, but Riku didn't seem to get along with any of the kids. Aerith had tried once or twice to get him involved, but he always went off on his own. Kids tried to play with him also, but they got bored because Riku didn't play back or just gave up trying.

When Aerith had asked Riku's mom about this, she said that was just how he was, a loner. She couldn't say why exactly he was like that also, but just that he was. Aerith suspected there was more to the story, but she didn't question what else there was. It wasn't her place.

"Yep." Juliet said in reply, once again tilting with her head in the direction of Riku.

Aerith took the hint this time and turned to look where Juliet had been indicating. She smiled at the sight, and was a bit surprised also. Sora, her new charge, was playing cars with Riku. Sora was talking to Riku, and Riku was responding! How Sora had gotten Riku to do that, she wouldn't be able to say at the time. That wasn't the point though, the point was that Riku, the loner, was playing with another kid.

Now it wasn't unheard of to see a loner play with another for a time, but Aerith had never seen a loner play with another before, so it was a bit heart warming to see that it could happen.

"Miracles happen all the time." Aerith commented lightly, turning her smile onto Juliet.

Juliet smiled beck, before losing it. "Riku will be going home today though, so see it while you can." She said, heaving a small sigh afterward. A light bulb seemed to go off a second later as her face light up in question. " Oh, that reminds me, when is Sora going home with you?"

Aerith pursued her lips in thought, crossing her arms in front of her. "In a few days at most. Probably tomorrow or the day after. I'll talk to Cloud about it. Then there are the tests that also still need to come back." She pondered out loud.

She had had all the test come back, but after seeing the results she had had to send more of the things she had on Sora in to be tested. There had to be a reason for Sora's memory to be so shot!

"Well, you better tell Sora sometime soon that he is going home with you." Juliet added on.

Aerith nodded.

* * *

"Bye Riku!" Sora called down the hallway, waving to his newfound friend. 

Riku glanced back, smiling and waving back to Sora also. Then the silver-haired one turned forward again. Beside Riku was a very tall man. He had silver hair like Riku, just that it was really long. The guy had on a suit also, probably just came here from work

Sora had found out that Riku was leaving today, and had been a bit sad about it. He didn't show it to his new friend though, saying they would see each other again, just you watch.

Now Sora couldn't be really sure about that, but he was happy to see his friend happy, so that made it all better.

Riku's dad, the guy walking next to him, had come about a half hour ago, signed the papers, and now was taking Riku home with him.

They had already said goodbyes and such, but Sora didn't turn back to go into the room till Riku had turned the corner, waaayyy down the hallway.

He lost his smiled then, but put it back on when Aerith looked at him.

"Hey, I haven't told you the news yet, have I?" She questioned with cheerfulness in her voice. She had seen Sora lose the smile, but she was determined to make up for it with some good news.

"Huh? What news!" Sora questioned back just as enthusiastic. He had forgotten Mrs. Aerith had something to tell him, but now he remembered. He glanced up at her with expectant eyes.

Aerith smiled a little wider.

"Well, we found out where you're going to live for a bit." She answered, glancing away.

"Huh? Live?" Sora questioned back, confused.

Oh, that was right, he didn't exactly know and he was six.

"You can't stay in the orphanage because it's overcrowded, so you have to stay with someone else." She explained briefly, looking back down at the boy.

"Oh. Who?" Sora replied, but still didn't have a clue on what Aerith was talking about. Aerith shook her head; she'd have to explain that part again later to him.

"Your coming to live with me." Aerith decided to just cut to the chase.


	7. New Home

**Author's Rambles:** Meh…sorry for taking so long to update. Busy and running out of time. I've committed to updating soon though, so here I go. Sorry if this seems to jump ahead a bit, but it had just seemed really awkward when I tried typing up a part. See, I know what I want to do next, but I didn't know how to lead to it. My friend suggested a time lapse, but I don't know.

**Sora: **A time lapse sounds good.

**Spider: **Really?

**Sora: **Yeah, and I'm sure the reviewers won't mind if it gets a chapter up.

**Spider: **True. Okay, time lapse, here we come!

**Sora: **Um…question.

**Spider: **What?

**Sora: **What's a time lapse?

**Spider: -**face palm- Just do the disclaimer for me Sora.

**Sora: **Okay! Spider does not own Kingdom Hearts and never will…thankfully…

**Spider: **Hey! What's that suppose to mean!

**Disclaimer:** As Sora said, me no ownie Kingdom Hearts. Nor do I own "Brother My Brother", which is by Blessed Union Of Souls.

**Chapter 7: New Home:**

The reaction Sora had had to hearing he was going to live with Aerith had been mild. Aerith had guessed it was because Sora still didn't understand the whole situation and was still confused. Heck, she was still confused by the whole situation. That hadn't been the only thing that had come up though. Roxas had asked when Sora was really going to live with them, and she had answered in a few days. Since then, the family had been kid-proofing the house as best they remembered, since they were going to have a curious six-year old in the house soon. It had been decided that Sora would just have to sleep in the living room for now, till other arrangements could be made. Since both Cloud and Aerith worked, they were going to switch off taking Sora to work with them, so they could keep an eye on the little kid. Other plans were made for the new arrival to their house, and soon it was the day Sora would come "home", per say.

* * *

Aerith was driving home from work. Behind her, in the back seat, sat a certain six-year old boy who looked out the window with interest. Questions of what that was or were they there yet would appear every once in a while. 

"Where are we going again?"

"To my house Sora."

"How much longer?"

"Not much longer."

"What's that?"

"A trolley."

"What's a trolley?"

"It's kind of like a train."

"What's a train?"

"Um…I think that's enough questions for now Sora."

"Oh…okay."

Aerith glanced up at the mirror, looking at the boy seated behind her. She just wondered when the next wave of questions would come. It'd end, and then come back again. Some of the questions had been about the parts of town, since they had passed the part where no cars were really allowed and walking was a necessity. It had been fun trying to explain that to Sora, who probably still didn't get it.

Twilight Town was arranged differently. The main part of town where there was no cars and had ways to get to everything, then the outskirts of the town where houses were usually located and driving was okay. Businesses that didn't want to draw to much attention to them were also on the outskirts of town. The hospital was too, since it was too big to fit within the main part of town where crammed and small stores ruled the day.

Back to Aerith and Sora though.

Sora went back to looking out the window of the car, having got all the answers he would get through this wave of questions, before something caught his attention again.

"What's that?" He questioned once again, pointing out the window as he turned his gaze towards the seat in front of him. He couldn't exactly see Aerith, so looking at the back of the seat was the next best option.

"A park Sora." She answered once more, somehow always able to tell what Sora was pointing at or questioning. It was a mother's ability if anything.

"Park?"

"Yes, where you can play at. Roxas will have to take you there." She suggested, looking at the mirror again to see a smile appear on the brunette's face.

"Okay!" He stated cheerfully, looking back out the window.

She smiled, turning her attention back to the road. A few minutes later, and they were home.

* * *

Sora gasped, looking around the inside of the house, and he was just in the living room. Everything seemed bigger then him, only inspiring more awe from the small boy. Aerith was right next to him, watching his reactions to his temporary "new" home. She smiled again, as Sora continued to glance back and forth between everything, even taking a few hesitant steps forward. 

"Go on, explore." She said, tilting her head to the side when Sora looked up at her with a questioning gaze. "Nothing will harm you." She added on as a small reassurance, watching Sora nod and start to walk further into the house.

Aerith sighed, sitting down onto the couch to rest for a few minutes. Sora was now officially living here.

* * *

Sora had been exploring for quite some time now, and after having getting lost a few times, knew his way around better then he had before. Brother my Brother 

_Tell me what are we fighting for_

_We've got to end this war_

_We should love one another_

_Oh can't we just pretend_

_This war never began_

_We can try_

_Brother my brother_

Sora blinked a few times, looking at the door next to him. He thought he had heard music coming from there just then. It had been one of the only rooms he hadn't checked out yet.

We face each other from different sides 

_The anger burns can't remember why_

_It's kind of crazy to cause so much pain_

_Our foolish pride makes us hate this way_

Sora titled his head to the side a bit, taking a few steps towards the door. It was defiantly coming from the other side of the door, but whether he should go in or not was something still being thought out.

We watch our world fall apart 

_Tell me what good is winning _

_When you lose your heart_

Sora now had his ear to the door, trying to listen to what was going on inside as if he were a spy. All he heard was the music and nothing else. It wasn't dangerous to check out what was in the room then, was it?

Brother my brother 

_Tell me what are we fighting for_

_Isn't life worth so much more_

_We should love one another_

_Oh, can't we just pretend_

_This war never began_

_Tell me why_

_Brother my brother_

Sora decided it was safe enough to at least look in the room. He was allowed to explore anyway. Sora reached up one of his hands, turning the doorknob to let himself in.

Yes 

_We can try_

_Brother my brother_

_Yes_

Sora poked his head into the room, taking in the surroundings. It looked like it was someone's bedroom, but he couldn't tell whose at the moment. The music he had heard was playing from the radio on top of the dresser.

Let's take a moment and look deep inside 

_And say we'll learn to give love a try_

_When matters differ as we seem to be_

_There's so much more to me than what you see_

There was someone else in the room, Sora discovered upon a closer look. He unconsciously stiffened, his hand grasping the doorknob just a bit tighter. He was ready to flee at a moments notice, if needed. Aerith had said there was nothing to fear, right? Then why was he afraid?

You don't have to be this way 

_Think about the consequences_

_Turn around and walk away_

Wait a second, he knew that person. Sora let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, it coming out in a small sigh. It was just Roxas sitting at his desk scribbling away at something. It wasn't like it was a big scary man here to attack him. Sora opened the door a bit wider, stepping fully into the room now.

Brother my brother 

_Tell me what are we fighting for_

_Isn't life worth so much more_

_We should love one another_

_Oh, can't we just pretend_

_This was never began_

_Tell me why_

_Brother my brother_

Sora pulled on Roxas's pant leg, a gesture he's done before, questioning something at the same time. "What are you doing?"

Roxas immediately jumped, giving a shriek and looking down at Sora. Sora, not knowing what else to do and Roxas being surprised by something scaring him, squeaked back, both staring straight at each other. Sora had retracted his hand to his chest now, looking a bit scared. Roxas just looked surprised, and confused.

Brother my brother 

_Tell me what are we fighting for_

_Isn't life worth so much more_

_We should love one another_

_Oh, can't we just pretend_

_This was never began_

_Tell me why_

_Brother my brother_

The last notes of the song played while the two just kept staring, neither one wanting to make the next move. The song completely turned off, the music gone now, as everything seemed to happen at once.

"What are you doing here?" Roxas questioned at the same time Aerith was coming into the room and saying: "What's going on? I heard a shriek." Which was at the same time Sora decided to say: "Sorry!"

There was a delay in more talking as the three of them figured out what exactly the others had said at the same time they said their line.

Roxas was the first to speak again. "Oh, that exp-" But he was interrupted before he could go further.

"Sorry! I just heard the music and wanted to know what it was. Don't hurt me!" Sora shrieked out, covering his head with his hands as he crouched into a small ball, a spiky one, but a little ball still. It was as if he was expected some physical abuse.

Aerith looked down at Sora, before back to the confused face of Roxas.

" I was just going to say that you being home explains why Sora was here." He said, sounding a bit lost. In a way, they all were lost by Sora's reaction, even Sora himself.

Aerith nodded, looking back down at Sora. "Why would we hurt you?" She questioned, walking over and kneeling next to the boy.

She heard him mumble something that sounded an awful like 'I don't know.'

"Well, if there is no reason, then why are you hiding?" She questioned, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder, only to feel him stiffen. He mumbled something again, and she didn't catch it this time.

"Sora, we aren't going to hurt you. There's no need to hide." She gently reassured the boy, slowly starting to rub Sora's back in an act to reassure him further.

"She's right. You have nothing but friends here." Roxas added in with a grin Sora couldn't see at the moment.

"He's right also." Aerith said in approval, and slowly, Sora let himself unstiffened and stood like a normal person again. Aerith removed her hand, tilting her head to the side with a smile at Sora.

"Better?" She questioned the still hesitant boy. He nodded, before looking over at Roxas. Roxas glanced at the papers on his desk before looking back down at Sora.

"I was doing my homework." Roxas said.

"Huh?" Sora asked.

"You asked what I was doing before. I was working on my homework. Dreadful stuff, but it must be done." Roxas answered.

Sora blinked a few times, before smiling back at Roxas. "Oh yeah." He giggled a few times afterward, earning a chuckle from Aerith.

"Well, I'll just leave you boys alone." Aerith stated, making her way out of Roxas's room. "Try not to get into too much trouble you two." She added on, looking back at the boys before walking out of the room and closing the door behind her.

"Got it mom." Roxas had said in reply, before looking down at Sora. He could work on his homework later.

"So, like the place Sora?" Roxas tilted his head to the side; the older one was questioning the younger one for once.

"Yeah, it's really big." Sora complemented, looking back over at Roxas.

"Is it now?"

"Yeah. There are lots of hiding spots also. I found them all!" Sora bragged slightly, even though he had no clue he was doing so.

"Oh, you have, have you?" Roxas questioned further, amused.

"Uh-huh."

"Well, we'll have to put that to the test." Roxas said with a hint of mischief in his voice. Sora just looked confused.

* * *

Aerith gave her husband a quick kiss on the lips, said husband just arriving home a few moments ago. He gave her a small smile, and she smiled back. 

"Good day at work?" He questioned.

"Yep. It was a fun day. It was easy to pack up for Sora also, since he doesn't have anything really." Aerith explained, walking back into the kitchen to restart her working on supper.

"So, Sora is finally here. Where is he?" Cloud questioned, putting his coat on the coat hanger before following his wife into the kitchen.

"I don't know. He accidentally walked in and surprised Roxas earlier, and I haven't heard them both since." Aertih answered, looking up and over at him. "Not that I think about it though, we really should check on them if we aren't hearing anything." She mused silently. She picked up a spatula, stirring whatever was in the frying pan.

"Mm…smells good. And I'll go check on them." Cloud commented and said, turning to go do just what he said. He stopped though, seeing a certain six-year boy walk into the kitchen. Aerith looked up from her cooking, watching the young boy as he paid no attention to the adults in the room and instead, took to looking underneath things.

Cloud looked over at her, and she just shrugged, watching Sora for a few moments more before questioning his actions.

"What are you doing?" she questioned softly.

Sora stopped in looking, turning his gaze to her instead. "Looking for Roxas." He answered simply, noticing Cloud in the kitchen as well. "Hi Mr. Strife!" He added in a greeting, before going back to looking underneath the table.

"Hello Sora." Cloud had said back in response. Aerith was still confused about Sora's actions, and questioned further about. "He should be upstairs in his room." She stated, confused.

"I checked up there already. He wasn't hided up there." Sora answered, stopping in his searching to look and see if there was anywhere else in the kitchen where an older boy could hide.

"Hided?" Aerith turned to look at the boy better, tilting her head to the side.

"Yeah, hided." Sora replied with a small nod.

"I think you mean hidden." Cloud interjected.

"Hidden?" Sora turned to look at Cloud instead, the confused look on his face as Aerith's disappeared.

"The correct form of the word you were using." Cloud explained briefly, sighing when Sora still looked sorely confused by his statement.

"You guys are playing Hide 'n' Seek?" Aerith cut in instead, changing the subject to less confusing things.

"Uh-huh, and I have to find Roxas." Sora agreed, turning to look back at Aerith now. "I hasn't found him yet. I'm going to go look some more!" Sora said, shaking his head lightly before exiting the room to look somewhere else.

"Haven't." Cloud interjected again.

"He's only six. It'll take him a while to figure out all the grammar and verb usages yet. What, can't handle poor grammar anymore?" Aerith teased, giving her husband a mischievous grin.

Cloud ignored the tease, instead crossing his arms across his chest and looking towards the doorway where Sora had just exited through. "How long do you say till he finds Roxas?" He questioned with a hint of amusement, tilting his head to the side.

"What, with the hiding places Roxas has found in this house? Never. For right now at least, that is unless Roxas gives him a few clues or is hiding in an easier spot." She supplied an answer, before tilting her head to the side as well. "Unless we were to help him." She added on.

Cloud gave a small smile.

* * *

"Sora, I'm pretty sure he is in this room." Cloud interrupted the boy looking in the bathtub. They were currently in the bathroom, Cloud having found his son in the cabinet above the door a while ago. While he had been sure he would find his son up there, it had taken him by a bit of surprise also. 

"Really, just in here?" Sora turned away from the bathtub, looking up at Cloud who was tilting his head toward said cabinet with Roxas hidden inside.

Sora merely tilted his head at him, wondering what the adult was doing. This was his second time scouring the house for the older boy, and he had yet to find him.

Cloud sighed; catching on that Sora wasn't getting what he was saying. He walked over to the boy, noticing how he flinched, before picking up said boy as if it were no big deal. He heard Sora squeak, before the boy was over his shoulders, now sitting on them.

Sora had officially freaked out by this time, just holding onto the hand that had grabbed him seconds ago. His breathing had gotten faster, and his eyes had slipped closed along the way, and now he just awaited something to happen.

Nothing did….

Slowly, but cautiously, Sora opened his eyes to see what would become of him. He blinked at the position he found himself in. He could tell he was sitting on Cloud's shoulders, but the view from up here was what caught his interest. It was a long way down, or that was what it seemed like to a small boy like him. "Woah."

Cloud chucked, the first time Sora had ever heard him do so. "There are a bunch of new places to look higher up." Was the only comment Cloud made of the situation.

Sora tilted his head, confused as he rested his hand on Cloud's spikes of hair, glancing around now that he was higher up. Was there somewhere he missed that he couldn't see down there?

Cloud, on the other hand, had moved a few small steps; being dangerously close to the cabinet he knew Roxas was in. He had a small smile on his face, knowing his son would hold it against him that he helped Sora find him, but loving it all the same.

Sora jumped slightly, tilting his head at the cabinet he had just found himself next to. He was sure he had heard something move in there, but what was it that moved? He really couldn't say.

"You could check it out." Cloud gently counseled, had since noticed Sora's jump. The boy was on his shoulders.

Sora had nodded slowly, reached out to open the cabinet. Cloud had tightened his grip on Sora slightly, not wanted the poor boy to fall and break something. Aerith would have his head for that.

Sora felt his hand enclose the handle to the cabinet, before he was pulling it open.

A few words of surprise.

A small squeak.

"Roxas!"

"Hiya Sora." Roxas said, smiling at said boy from his hiding place. He tilted his head to the side, noticing his father was the one holding Sora. He smiled, vowing to get his dad later.

"You found me."


	8. Fears Alive

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own anything._

**Author's Notes: **_Sorry for the delay. I had trouble writing for a while. Anyway, here's an extra long update for you guys. Enjoy! (Also, it's not beta-ed either, but I wanted to get it out finally, like...after a year. Hehe...sorry again.)_

**Chapter 8: Fears Alive**

Cloud sighed, his hands behind his head as he gazed up at the dark ceiling. The thunderstorm was letting him get no sleep, and for once he was jealous of his wife and son. They both could sleep through anything if they wished it, and he had heard no sound from Roxas's room yet. He knew if his son did wake up, he would at least know. Roxas was still uneasy about storms at night.

When Roxas had been younger, it was always Cloud to combat the fears of thunderstorms. Aerith took care of the fear of spiders, or the phase when Roxas was afraid that just getting a cut was enough to kill, or at least to be the second to worse possible thing to happen. Him, it was his inability to sleep through everything that made him the perfect person to help with fears at night.

By now, Roxas had grown out of the phase of being afraid of thunderstorms, so he had been unneeded for a while now. It wasn't to say that every once in a while he wasn't needed, since everyone can be uneasy about old fears every so often.

Something else was bothering Cloud, and he knew it. What it was though, he wasn't able to place. Roxas would be fine, and Aerith was asleep next to him. Sora was sound asleep downstairs. They had placed the boy in the living room, really having no spare room to put him into. They had the couch for Sora to sleep on, and they had only gone to bed once they were sure Sora had fallen asleep. Aerith had suggested they do that since it was a new house to Sora, and, as they learned with Roxas's first experiences at a sleepover, it isn't always easy for a kid to be in a strange house without reassurance.

Cloud sat up, the thing that was bothering him finally made clear. Sora's actions were bit more jumpy at things then Roxas ever was at that age. If Roxas was afraid of thunderstorms, then it was possible Sora was too!

Cloud pushed the covers back, turning so he was in a sitting position instead.

"Mere dyu going?" He heard a sleepy question. Cloud smiled. So the rock finally woke up.

"Just to check on the kids." He replied, glancing over his shoulder at Aerith. She was facing him, but it was obvious that she was still half asleep, if not more.

"M…kay." Aerith drawled out. A yawn escaped her lips afterwards. "Come get me if you need to." She added on, waking up enough to speak coherently before turning over again.

"Gotcha." Cloud shook his head, knowing he would be able to take care of anything too serious.

Then, it was pushing off and away from the bed, heading downstairs and checking on Roxas as he passed his son's room.

* * *

It was not a good night for a certain brunette boy. After being put to bed hours ago, he was up again. Woken up from his pleasant dreams that he wouldn't remember in the morning. It all took one big crash, and he was up, frightened and confused. His eyes shot open, and he found himself staring up into darkness. 

Flash!

Light entered the room in a flash, illuminating the entire room. Shadow sprung up behind inanimate objects, than were quickly enveloped in darkness as the light left the room.

The shadows he had seen became monsters. He didn't understand that is was a simple storm, and as usual, was reacting as a confused kid would. Sora hid himself.

He grabbed the blanket he had been holding onto, pulling it up and over his head as he curled tighter into himself: into a ball. It was a defense against (fake) monsters rising up around him.

Crash! Flash!

He shook, a startled sob finding its way out of the boy. He tried curling up tighter into his ball, but was failing fast. He couldn't be absorbed into the couch, no matter if he wanted to or not.

Crash!

Hands went up to the head, to cover his ears. The noise was deafening to the boy, and he just wanted it to disappear: for everything to just freeze, him along with it.

Flash!

A shadow rose up next to him, coming closer and closer, illuminated by the lightening. Sora shrieked, catching sight of it.

The blanket was pulled from Sora, the only protection he had against the monsters. Sora certainly wasn't going down without a fight. He squirmed, pushing against the back of the couch as he tried to escape, getting as far away from the shadow as he could.

It was of no use. It came closer, a hand, resting on his shoulder. "Sora! Sora! Calm down!" The hand rested firmly on his shoulder, refusing to let go even though Sora beat it over with one of his smaller hands. "No! No!" Sora shouted back, refusing to sit still as he continued to squirm.

He had to get away. Get away from the monster. It could eat him, or boil him in stew, or…or other horrible terrifying things. Sora just had to get away, the instinct to run the top priority, overweighing emotions and even logical thought. It was just to run, and keep running: to keep away from danger!  
The hand never left his shoulder though, holding just tight enough to not let go, yet light enough to not hurt the boy. "Sora! Just listen. You're safe! It's okay."

Flash!

The room illuminated again, showing the features of a concerned Cloud. Sora let a sob escape him, finally seeing it wasn't a monster, but something familiar. He stopped fighting; becoming a jumbled mass of shakes and shivers. He closed his eyes, relief flooding through the boy that it wasn't a monster, but just Cloud.

Relief would not stop the adrenaline running through the boy though, nor how tense his muscles were. Only once the fear disappeared would the physical attributes die as well.

Crash!

Sora flinched again, another sob finding its way out.

"Shh. It's okay Sora. I'll protect you." Cloud muttered, finally moving his hand from Sora's shoulder. The hand lightly brushed Sora's bangs, pulling them away from the sweaty boy's face. Fear certainly was a stickler.

"Oh, what has life done to you?" Cloud muttered.

"Wh-hat-t-t?" Sora stuttered back, opening his tear-stained eyes.

"Nothing. Here, can I sit on the couch with you?" Cloud questioned softly, brushing Sora's bangs back again.

Even in the circumstances, Sora could say that it felt nice that Cloud kept the bangs out of his face. They did nothing to help him, catching tears and just being a big wet mess. The boy could only nod to Cloud's request, not trusting his shaky voice when thunder boomed in the back round again.

He, however, didn't expect Cloud to do what he did. How could he, when he didn't know the man? He felt himself being picked up a few moments later. He squeaked in alarm, squirming before he was placed down again, on Cloud's lap.

He blinked, surprised, his fear momentarily forgotten at the foreign kindness. He looked at the blankets in a ball on the couch, to the pillow on the other side of him, and then up to Cloud's face through the darkness, a face that held a small smile of amusement.

Crash!  
Sora jumped, instantly leaning forward into Cloud's chest, proceeding to bury his teary face there. A small noise of distress escaped Sora as he balled a part of Cloud's nightshirt within his tiny fist. He was tense again, the fear back in full force.

Cloud gave a sympathetic smile, reaching over to grab the abandoned blanket. He placed it over Sora, covering his own legs in the process. After that was done, he placed a hand on the small of Sora's back, his other hand being placed on the back of Sora's neck, tightening his hold on the young boy. It was a weird instance for a hug, but it was a hug none-the-less.

"Just relax. I'll keep you safe." Cloud promised, holding the boy tight.

* * *

Aerith smiled, titling her head at the sight. Cloud was better with the kids at night, better then she had been for sure. It was daytime for her, nighttime for Cloud. She turned, sneaking back the way she came, and into her bedroom.

* * *

It wasn't till the storm was almost done with, and the thunder was only a distant noise, barley louder then a car going by, that Sora began to relax. Cloud had sworn Sora had fallen asleep minutes ago, only to be proven wrong. 

"Thank you." He heard a soft voice say, only to find the calmer features of Sora when he looked down. Without the thunder creating fear, Sora was just another kid close to falling asleep, but fighting the sleep to the end.

"Anytime. You get some sleep. That was a rough thunderstorm. I was even a bit worried." Cloud replied just as softly, a smile gracing his features at the small confusion that showed through Sora's features.

"You were scared?" Sora questioned, hesitant. Adults weren't supposed to be scared, were they?

"Yes, a little bit. Everyone is afraid of something. There is nothing wrong with fear."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Even you?"

"Even me."

"Roxas?"

"Him too."

"Oh." Sora replied, yawning through his words.

"The thing is, that you face your fear sometime. If you don't, then the fear will overcome you and can be used against you later. Understand?"

"Yea."

Cloud chucked quietly, seriously doubting Sora the slightest clue on what he was talking about and it was just the sleepiness talking. He had heard the slur in Sora's words.

"More questions in the morning. You just sleep." Cloud order softly, shifting slightly to become more comfortable on the couch.

Sora nodded into his chest, sighing.

Cloud smiled, blinked a few times, than looked around the room. He wouldn't leave Sora again tonight, not needing a relapse into the wild mode from before. Cloud had seriously been a bit afraid, not having confronting such terrified features before. He had met fear with his son many times, but none to that degree. He had wished he could've done something else other then to just hold onto Sora and be a lifeline, but he still didn't know the kid and what would work, and what wouldn't, to calm him down. With Roxas, it was just to make jokes to have them both laughing. With Sora, he wasn't so sure. The kid was a puzzle, and seemed to get more complex by the minute.

They really needed to learn about this kid's past.

Cloud sighed, closing his eyes. He'd have to figure out this puzzle more in the morning, finding himself sleepy as well. Staying up late was well enough, but sleep greets everyone sooner or later. He checked to make sure Sora was asleep before he closed his eyes and proceeded to get himself the rest he needed. Now seemed like a good time to rest his eyes.

* * *

"Aw…" Cloud heard someone saying, and he blinked, only to find his wife a few feet in front of him. "Rough night?" She questioned. 

"Yes. We'll need to talk again."

"That bad?"

"Later."

"Okay." Aerith turned, walking back into the kitchen. "Well, breakfast is done." She added in the other room.

"Roxas awake?"

"No, he's still asleep. Best to wake him up soon. What about Sora?"

"Best to let him sleep a bit longer." Cloud answered, placing said boy on the couch. He sent the sleeping boy a funny look. Here was a calm kid, asleep and peaceful, different from the Sora from last night. Last night was horrified, frightened, awake kid that seemed ready to bolt at the slightest wrong movement.

He sighed, shaking his head to rid of the confusion as he trudged after his wife into the kitchen.

"I saw you two last night. You always were better with nighttime fears."

Cloud blinked in surprise, looking away from the cupboard full of glasses and cups, where he had been debating on if he was thirsty enough to get something, to his wife. He smiled, knowing he wouldn't have to explain anything at all about last night.

"Sneak."

"You love me anyway." She laughed back, returning to her frying pan full of food.

* * *

Roxas growled slightly to himself. He knew that things around the house would change when Sora did move in with them, but he didn't know how much that meant. It meant that he wouldn't have as much free time, or 'alone' time as he liked, as Sora kept interrupting that time. He had been studying, or simply relaxing, when Sora would come in to see what he was doing. He knew the kid was simply looking for someone to play with, but couldn't he just go play on his own or find someone else other then him? He had to study for school, and he already had his own life without this new person in it. He liked his life just the way it was, and was turning out to be a lot more stubborn then his mom had hoped at letting Sora into that life for a bit. 

He was a teenager, and had a lot better things to be doing today then taking a little kid shopping for clothes because said kid didn't have any except for what said kid was wearing. He also hated shopping with a passion, only going with friends because then, and only then, was it actually fun. He was horrible with fashion, much less what to pick out for…young kids. He had a hard enough time with how picky he was with his own clothes.

And so this brings us to our story of Roxas walking moodily down the street, hands in the pockets and looking like he'd rather be anywhere else then here. Sora was cheerfully skipping next to him, seeming to not notice the negative mode the older one was in. Simply enjoying the sites around him and questioning things, though he was hardly getting any answers from the older.

"Roxas! What's that?"

"Who's that?"

"Woah! Look at that!"

All exclamations and proclamations from the six-year old were ignored to the best of Roxas's ability, simply nodding or shaking his head and trying to do anything but give an answer.

He had his mom to thank for this excursion to the clothing store. She had insisted _he_ take Sora, because _she _was busy with papers and had to talk with his father about things. He took it as they were setting up excuses, but what else could he do about it? Exactly. Nothing. Especially when his mom played the guilt card. He hated that card with a passion and it's ability to get him to almost do anything.

Roxas was so busy grumbling about the situation that he almost didn't notice when Sora kept on walking…into the street…when they were suppose to be stopping because the little thing that told you to walk was red with a big red hand meaning **'STOP'**!

It was an unusual way to be brought out of his thoughts.

"Sora! Get back here!" Roxas yelled a bit harsher then he meant, grabbing the younger boy by the shoulder a bit rougher then he meant, and pulling the boy back onto the curb a bit harder then he truly meant.

Sora, however, didn't cry out in alarm at the sudden movement of the cars in front of him, darting back and forth as the cars accelerated to pick up speed. No, he wasn't at all concerned that _he'd_ **almost** walked _into _**that**! He didn't understand _that_! On the other hand, he did understand the **harshness** from Roxas, even if he didn't know _why_.

Instant fear pricked its way up through his body, becoming the tense, frightened boy that was often hidden by this child. The boy he didn't remember, but that didn't mean the instincts instilled in him through all _those_ years were gone. They were still thriving, waiting for any moment to bring this bright boy back to the miserable one he'd left behind. The one he'd forgotten about, but not truly forgotten about. The brain is a complex thing, and memories can be pushed to the back of it, never to be found again, but never forgotten. That's where déjà vu feelings come in. This was certainly a time like that again.

He was afraid again. Not of Roxas, but of the harsh words and actions. It wasn't Roxas his mind was instinctively acting to, but those words and actions again. No wonder everyone got confused, even himself, when this mode was turned on from everything else. He was a bit of a shy boy and easily frightened, but this was pushing beyond those limits he had even when that age. He wasn't _this_ afraid of his _true_ parents at this age. It was the years again. The years he pushed up a shell and started untrusting those words and actions, even if they weren't meant, but because they usually meant that.

Pain and suffering.

It came as no surprise to his instincts that he froze up the minute he was pulled next to the older, ready to dart away in a second if a hand was raised in a motion he _wasn't _familiar with, but his instincts _were_. He bit his lip out of habit; scrunching up his eyes so he couldn't see the things he _thought_ might come, though he had no clue _where _those thoughts came from. His hands slowly curled into small fits at his side as he turned his head towards the ground, as if waiting to be hit, which, in some way, he was waiting for.

Roxas let out an agitated sigh, relieved that Sora wasn't flattened into a pancake, but ready to give the boy a good scolding for walking into the street like that. It was basic knowledge not to do something like that, unless you were suicidal or something. He doubted a little kid was, but…what did he really know about the kid anyway?

"Sora. You can't walk into the street when the-" Roxas had tried for a stern voice, like the one his mother always used with him, but had ended up pausing when he had actually turned his angry gaze to the brunette boy, seeing him visibly flinch from his words. He sighed again, all the anger that had been welling up since they left the house seeming to abandon him at that point. He didn't want to scare Sora, knowing very well how much a bully could hurt someone mentally, or even someone, someone was afraid of. He'd had quite a few experiences in that department, and certainly didn't want to do to Sora what they had done to him. He loosened his tight grasp on the younger shoulders, taking on a more neutral look.

For all Roxas knew, Sora had no clue about basic road instructions. Rather then yelling, he decided he'd try to help in that department, if only to make sure one less kid got killed by a car accident. It didn't happen often here, and he didn't want to live with the guilt that he didn't tell Sora about those rules and be a cause of why such an accident should happen.

He kneeled in front of the boy, putting his free hand on Sora's other shoulder. "Hey, will you look up at me?" He questioned softly, ducking and turning his head to try to get a good enough look at Sora's own face. He raised an eyebrow in challenge when the younger boy shook his head in refusal. Two could play at the stubborn game.

"I mean it, I've got something to tell ya." Roxas said in a more normal tone of voice, moving his right hand to forcibly, but gently, pull Sora's chin up so that neither of them had to duck their heads now. Roxas pouted slightly now, wondering how he was going to get those eyes to open now. He did not like how tense Sora was at the moment; nor how much of that tension showed on the boy's face. All this because he pulled him back from the curb? This was going extreme…or something? He did decide that no one should be that tense, and thought of one way that might work.

"Or…am I going to have to tickle you?" Roxas asked in a dawdling tone, tilting his head to the side.

That seemed to break through some barrier, as Sora blinked once, twice, and then had a totally confused look cross his face from Roxas's sentence. "Huh?" The brunette quietly questioned, the tension from his body slowly retreating.

Roxas decided he liked the confused look a lot better then the tension filled one. "Well, you wouldn't look at me. I told you, I have something to tell you." He repeated cheerfully, even throwing in a little smile.

"Oh." Came the timid reply.

"I guess I don't have to tell you, if you really don't want to-"

"No! I want to know! What is it?"

Roxas laughed. Sora certainly bounced back quickly. Then again, the kid was…well, a kid. He nodded to Sora's look of curiosity, turning slightly so he could point out the walk/don't walk thingy to Sora.

"See that?"

"Yeah."

"Well, when it's green with the walking man, that's when you can walk across the street. When it's red with the hand, that's when you wait for the green man to say you can walk again. You were walking when the red hand was up, which is why I started to yell at you." Roxas explained; turning back to the younger boy to make sure that the other still was paying attention to what he was saying. Considering Sora was looking at the walk thingy, he figured the boy did. "So what did I say?" He questioned, just to make sure.

"Uh…" Sora tore his gaze away from the walk signal thing, glancing up at Roxas since even when the other was kneeling, the older was still taller then him. He glanced around, a bit lost at what to say.

Roxas raised an eyebrow. Then maybe Sora didn't pay as much attention as he thought the kid had. He sighed, about to explain it again…

"Red…no walk." Sora answered hesitantly, glancing and the sidewalk beneath him as he twiddled with his fingers slightly. He wasn't so sure about the answer, but he didn't want to get Roxas mad again, but he also didn't want to give Roxas the wrong answer and still end up with a mad Roxas. He had no clue why he thought Roxas would be mad at him from messing up either…just that he _did_!

Roxas tilted his head slightly at the younger boy. Strange behavior…? Or maybe it wasn't? He'd really need to talk with his mom about how kids are supposed to act. He was no expert in this department. "Yes, and green…?"

"Um…walk?"

Roxas smiled, patting Sora on the head before turning the pat into a small ruffle. "Exactly. Come on. We'd better get going if we're ever going to get you any more clothes." Roxas encouraged standing up again and glancing and the walk signal. It was green, meaning they could walk. It was then he remembered another important thing that mother made most little kids do.

Sora was happy with himself, glad to get the answer right. He giggled slightly, returning to his cheerful manner and glancing around in awe at the city around him. They were still on the outskirts of town, on the way to the middle of it, and yet he was already in awe of the whole city, even if he hadn't seen it yet.

"One more thing Sora."

Sora jumped slightly, being pulled out of his awe thoughts by Roxas again, without any harsh tones this time. He glanced up at the older boy, tilting his head to the side in curiosity. Now what?

"You're usually not supposed to cross the road without holding hands." Roxas answered, holding out his hand to the younger boy in a friendly manner.

Sora giggled, nodding his head. "Okay!" He agreed cheerfully, grabbing Roxas's hand with his two small ones, as they finally were able to cross the street safely.

Roxas laughed. "One would've sufficed." He muttered to himself.

* * *

"Hm…how about this?" 

"It's pink!"

"Oh…no, it's coral."

"Coral?"

"Why don't we try a different shirt?"

"Hey! Look at this!"  
"Sora, that shirt is way too big for you."

"Oh."

"Here is that shirt in a smaller size. We'll see if this one will fit you." Roxas commented, pulling the shirt off the rack. They'd already spent fifteen minutes in this department store, and had gotten no closer to getting Sora any new clothes, or shoes. It was quite aggravating for the older boy, who had no clue what sizes Sora were, and that, in turn, was making it even harder to find clothes.

He sighed, glancing back and forth. There were so many clothes, and yet they had only found one possible shirt so far. Now he remembered exactly why he hated shopping. It took forever! He was just about ready to bang his head into a wall, hoping that in some small way, that could help with the shopping problem.

"Hey. What are you doing here?"

Roxas was startled out of his wall banging thoughts, turning his gaze sideways at the two newcomers. "Oh. Hi. Olette. Selphie. I'm…uh…"

"Shopping?" Olette supplied helpfully, her hands linking behind her back as she giggled, tilting her head sideways at Roxas.

"With Sora." Roxas added, turning away from Olette and her little sister, to look for the younger boy. He was a bit surprised to find Sora gone, glancing around for any clues to where the boy could've gone. "Or, I was." He corrected quietly, a worried look lurking behind his calm demeanor.

"I'll go finds him!" Selphie announced from behind Olette, holding up her hand triumphantly at Roxas with a smile, before waving that hand back and forth as if to say: _'Pick me! Pick me!'_. She was dressed in a plain orange dress reaching the young girl's knees. Her feet were plaid in a pair of brown sandals as she hopped up and down in place, waiting for some kind of response.

If Roxas didn't know the little girl, he'd guess she was on a sugar rush with how hyper she was. Roxas, however, did know the girl, and knew it was the girl's nature to be so hyper, with or without sugar. It was just a whole lot worse if sugar was in the mix. "Okay, Selphie. He-"

"Yay! I'll find him!" Selphie interrupted loudly, darting away into the racks of clothing before anything else could be said.

"But!" Roxas was going to add: _"You don't know what he looks like!"_, but sensed that it was a lost cause. The spunky girl was gone already.

"Don't worry about her. She'll go around asking everyone if they are Sora, till she finds him." Olette said, laughing afterward. "I see you…um…shopping…is going well." She joked, noticing the one shirt Roxas had with him.

"Yeah…really…" Roxas replied plainly, rolling his eyes sarcastically.

She decided to take pity on the other teenager, putting her hands on her hips as she looked from side to side at the clothing on display. "I did come here to get Selphie new shoes, but I _guess _I can lend a helping hand, if you buy us Sea Salt Ice Cream after all the shopping is done." She loathingly stated, just pretending to hopefully get a smile out of the teenager.

Roxas smiled, nodding his head. "It'd be appreciated." He replied. He really could use the help with the shopping, and he loved Sea Salt Ice Cream. There was no downside to the deal, and he had a feeling that Olette had done that on purpose, just because she knew him that well.

"Let's get started." Olette stated cheerfully, clapping her hands together in front of her. "Now, lets get some clothes for Sora to try when he gets back…"

* * *

Sora had been wandering around aimlessly, looking at all the different clothes. He had been curious, and instead of staying by Roxas like he should've been doing, he'd walked away and into the sea of clothes without really meaning to. He wasn't in alarm that he was, indeed, lost…yet. That little fact was around, but not in the forefront of the boy's mind. It was more of staring in awe and amazement that was plaguing his thoughts at the moment. 

"Hey! Are you Sora?"

Sora yelped, jumping backwards from a sudden appearance of a girl in front of his face, like Firelight had done so many times before. Really, he should be getting used to these kinds of things, but he wasn't. His clumsiness didn't help either, when he tripped over nothing and into a rack of coats…backwards, landing on his bottom a second later after grabbing wildly only to find that there really was nothing to grab on, since he didn't register that grabbing onto the coats might be a good idea. He landed, and it hurt.

"Owie…" He groaned out, sniffling quietly afterward. It had hurt a lot, and he was still a bit new to all this pain business, his memory wiped clean of most of those memories as well. He sniffled again, biting his lip to try to get his mind off the pain, but it wasn't working. He tried not to cry, but in the end, it didn't work. He was frightened and hurt, and those two things mixed did nothing to stop the tears from starting to fall.

Selphie, with her brown hair curled at the ends giving her a unique hairstyle, blinked confusedly at the boy before her. He was underneath the coat rack now, making her get on her hands and knees to really be able to look at the new kid. She frowned at what she saw. She had just been trying to find Sora, not scare someone.

"H-hey! Don't cry! I didn't mean to scare yous!" Selphie tried to make up for her mistake, crawling underneath the coats so she could get closer to the boy. "I'm just looking for Sora." She added on, putting a hand on the boys shoulder in an effort to be comforting as she titled her head when the boy mumbled something she didn't catch.

"What'd you say?" She persisted.

"I'm S-sora." He mumbled out louder, trying to suppress a sob of hurt. He brought up a hand to his eyes, trying to wipe away the tears, but to no avail. They just wouldn't stop at the moment.

"Oh! Yays! I found you!" Selphie squealed out happily, previously forgetting that she wasn't trying to frighten the boy more and just happy that she found him. She didn't know that Sora wasn't use to the kind of person she was, so it was only natural that when Selphie practically tackled the boy in a hug of happiness, he yelped out in surprise once again. It ended with them both falling over from their sitting positions onto their backs, Selphie happily clinging to a freaked out Sora.

"What are you doing!" Sora shrieked out, rapidly glancing around to try to find a means of escape. He'd never really experienced hugs before, much less _Selphie's _hugs. Those hugs were on a whole new level from regular ones. He really only knew that he wanted to get away, and fast, from the hyperactive girl.

"It's a hug sillys! What? Never get a hug befores?" Selphie chirped in reply, finally letting the poor boy go and sitting up. "You're sillys! Sillys, sillys, Sora!" She giggled out, poking the boy in the shoulder.

Sora, on the other hand, was deeply confused. He had sat up as soon as he was able too, scooting over to get _some _space in between him and the new (scary) girl. He was tense again, still glancing around like he was going to dart away the second he wasn't being watched by a predator, even if that predator wasn't trying to be a predator.

"Uh…sillys?" He sniffed out, bringing up and hand to wipe at his eyes again. At least Selphie had accomplished her small goal of getting him to stop crying…though, scaring someone out of crying…that was new.

"Well, Olette says to say silly, but I like sillys better!"

"Oh…" Wait, he knew Olette. If the girl knew Olette, then she wasn't harmful…hopefully. "Uh…"

"Oh! How could I forgets? I'm Selphie!" The hyperactive girl pitched in, practically bouncing in her seat. She giggled a few times, before grabbing one of Sora's hands, much to his dismay. "Come on! We gots to get back!" She announced, pulling on Sora to make him follow her.

"To where?"

"Back to Roxie and Olie, of course!"

* * *

"Four Sea Salt Ice Creams, please?" 

"Here you go."

Roxas forked over the munny for the ice creams, taking the frozen treats from the lady behind the counter. He thanked her, before making his way back to Olette and their two charges. One successful thing for the day: Sora at least had outfits and a pair of shoes now.

It hadn't been easy. Oh sure, Olette had found cute clothes fast enough for the young boy (So fast, Roxas had turned around to find her with quite a few clothes that Sora had absolutely loved when he tried them on), but it was the trying out part that had been problematic. Turns out, Sora hadn't ever tried on clothes before. It was quite a site when Sora had come out barefoot, pantless (Thank goodness for underwear), and with a shirt half pulled over his head asking if it looked alright. Only his hair had been poking out of the neck hole.

Olette had burst into a fit of giggles while Roxas had quickly ushered Sora back into the dressing stall, properly helping the little kid try on an assortment of things. Thankfully (For Sora probably wouldn't have heard the end of it when he was older) Selphie had been occupied with the contents of her older sister's purse, playing with the make-up she found in there.

That…caused a problem later on however, once Sora was all done trying out his clothes. When the two boys had come out of the dressing stall, Selphie had come screaming something reminiscent of a war chant from around the corner. Her face was pure white from the powder she had found, along with streaks of red and black from lipstick and eyeliner. Poor Sora had such a scare, he ran back into the stall to hide. It had taken twenty minutes, and promises that the rabid girl was gone for Sora to be coaxed out again.

Roxas would've ended it sooner by just opening the door and forcing young Sora out, but Olette (Who had been sitting in a chair in the dressing stalls area) stepped in to take charge. She sent Roxas with the task of getting the make-up off of Selphie, a task that proved to not be so easy since they were both opposite genders, which meant opposite bathrooms. Selphie had gotten a view of the guy's room in the end, because there was no way in heck Roxas was going into a girl's room.

It was all rather embarrassing when the young girl insisted that she, quoted from her, "flush the upright toilets that boys are weird for using". Roxas had thanked his lucky stars that no one was in the bathroom with them; that was until he heard a flushing from one of the stalls, quickly followed by an adult that pretended not to notice them in the slightest bit. Roxas was glad for that, for he wasn't sure how he could've answered anything with the way he was just staring at himself in the mirror, as if asking his reflection if the world was trying to make him flush (and he indeed had, but he wouldn't admit it). Selphie was content to keep in flushing the things until the guy left, in which Roxas quickly took action and got the girl cleaned up and back to Olette.

Now, one think with all that on one's plate, it'd be all over. Sadly, it wasn't. Sora had still needed a good pair of shoes (for who wears sandals without backs around here? It wasn't like an island paradise). With all that taken care of, the group took Sora and Selphie to get new shoes. The two proved to be a great asset to each other, both picking out shoes for the other. Sora had found brown tennis shoes that had stitched in flowers all over them, which Selphie had loved the moment she set eyes on them. In return, Selphie had insisted on picking out Sora's shoes for him.

She picked out yellow shoes that had lights on the bottom half of the shoe that would light up when Sora walked. She claimed that she was afraid of the dark still; so the least she could do was make sure her friend was never in the darkness when he wore his shoes.

It had gotten a giggle out of Sora at the way she said it, and that he liked dandelions.

The only problem, amidst the friend making, was that Roxas and Olette were kept on their toes with keeping an eye on the two. Sora proved to be just as elusive as Selphie could be, and just as hyper when provoked. Selphie would run one way, and Sora the other. The two would meet after losing the older companions (in the few short rows), and try on silly shoes. Once, Selphie had gotten Sora to try on a pair of red ruby slippers, telling him to tap them three times to see if he would be transported home. They were both disappointed when it hadn't happened.

After a few rounds of this, Olette and Roxas took a different tactic, one person standing on either side of the isle to enclose the two little troublemakers in. It worked and shoes were finally found.

And that ended the fiasco at the store. Both kids were now happily enjoying their treats, licking away happily at the blue bar of ice cream. They sat next to the bench Olette was perched at; playing with some dinosaurs Olette had brought along for her little sister.

Roxas sighed, sucking on his own ice cream as he slouched on the bench next to Olette. She rolled her eyes, smiling happily as she ate her own bar in silence.

"That was certainly an adventure." Olette commented after a while, the silence finally being broken other then by exclamations from the two little kids next to them.

"You're telling me." Roxas had finished his own ice cream by now, chewing on the brown popsicle stick out of habit and lack of anything to do.

"Did you at least have fun?" The girl questioned, leaning forward to get a good look at Roxas's face.

"Fun?"

"Yeah, fun."

Judging by the look of _"why are you asking me this" _Currently on Roxas's face, he had no clue at what she was hinting at.

"I guess, if you call running after little kids fun." He replied ambiguously, not liking the smile of knowing Olette was now wearing.

Olette leaned back again, tilting her head to the side to look at Sora and Selphie. "Oh, you have no clue how much fun your in for Roxas." She muttered quietly, secretly happy that maybe, just maybe, her friend will lose some of the darkness that had been growing the past few years. Ever since that day…

"By the way, why'd you have make-up in your purse. I thought you didn't like make-up?" Roxas asked casually.

Olette blinked, glancing back up at him. "Oh, for the same reason why I have anything in my purse. It was left there and I haven't taken it out yet. We had that dance recently, 'member?"

"Ah…"

* * *

"No! You can't cross the street until the green man says you can!" Sora insisted, standing on the curb rather then following after Olette and Selphie across the street. The light was going to change soon, but if they were to jog across the street, they could make it. Unfortunately, Sora would have nothing of it. The red hand was up, even if it was flashing, and that meant you don't walk. Roxas sighed, taking a step back onto the curb (since he was holding Sora's hand. Olette had Selphie's) as their friends continue on, getting across before the light fully changed. 

At least now he knew Sora paid close attention to their little discussion earlier.

Sora, on the other hand, was proud of himself for remembering that. A smile was plastered on his face as he waved at Selphie from the other side of the speeding cars. When the light changed again, the two joined the girls on the opposing curb.

"Well, this is where we part ways. It was fun shopping with you two." Olette concluded, smiling at the two boys.

"You means we already has to go home? Aw…I was havings fun with Sora." Selphie pouted, looking up at her older sister. Olette just shook her head, showing that her sister's puppy dog eyes would not sway her; Selphie was just waiting to use them, she knew.

"That's okay. I'll sees you again." Sora cut in cheerfully, picking up on the way Selphie used the letter s a bit too much.

Olette nodding, looking at her little sister and glad Sora had brought that point up. "Sora's right. We'll see him again."

"Hm…okays. I guess we can leave him for now. But only if you promises I can play with him again!" Selphie bargained, giggling when her other sister agreed to the promise. "Yays! Bye Sora!"

"Bye you two. Get home safely." Roxas decided to finally join the conversation, leaning over to give Olette a goodbye hug. It was just a routine in their little group to give those types of hugs.

"Byes!" Interjected Sora.

"Enjoy your clothes Sora." Olette eyed the bags in Roxas's hands, smiling at the site.

"Okay!" And with that, the small group parted to walk in opposite directions down the street.

* * *

Sora shrieked. 

Roxas reacted quickly, picking up the little brunette that had fallen backwards onto the ground by now, and darting away as fast as he could from the little black things that had appeared out of nowhere.

It had been a surprise; the rest of the walk had been pleasant and quiet…well…except for Sora's constant questions of things. This time, however, Roxas was inclined to answer one or two of them, being in a much more pleasant mood then this morning.

It was getting late out as well, the sun starting to set on the horizon as the walked on. It was of no worry either, for Roxas couldn't think of a safer place then his home. Turned out, he couldn't have been more wrong. It happened a few blocks from them arriving home. They were walking, and till they had walked half a block, it had all been like it had before.

Once they reached the halfway mark, however, things took a drastic change for the worst. Black things popped out of the ground, seeming as if they were concrete themselves until they reared their ugly black heads from the sidewalk cement. Roxas was alarmed, stepping in front of Sora only to have some pop up behind them, forming a little mini circle like this was all planned.

For all he knew, Heartless did plan such things.

Sora probably should've been more alarmed then he was, but his curiosity had been jumpstarted from the moment the black things were materializing. He had no clue what they were, just that…black things appearing out of nowhere must be some type of magic to explore.

Sadly, the Heartless didn't care much for curiosity, and attacked on the spot. One lunged at Sora, gaining a nip to the arm with its attack. Sora shrieked, and the story had rebounded back to where we were before.

Roxas didn't know how or why the little things had appeared, but he did know one thing. That he was going to get out of there and get home as soon as he could, regardless of if the heartless were following them at this point or not. He couldn't fight the little things. Ordinary weapons wouldn't stop them, and he didn't have a weapon anyway. So, running it was.

* * *

Roxas burst into his own home, breathing hard and with a crying Sora in his hands, quickly closing the door behind him and leaning against said door while the bags from shopping dropped out of his hands. Aerith was the only one home at the moment, and with the lack of confirmation that her son was home, she walked from her boiling pot of noodles and into the living room. She gasped, and rushed to hug her son and Sora. 

"What happened?"

"Heartless." And that was all she needed to hear from her son to know the full story.

"I'll take Sora. You go watch the noodles for me." She ordered, gently taking the little boy from her son's hand while he nodded, a bit shakily, and headed to do what his mom asked of him.

She hugged the little boy to her, hurrying to the bathroom. When there, she placed Sora on the toilet seat, opening the bathroom cabinet to look for what she needed. "Bandages. Check. Disinfecting spray. Uh-huh." She muttered to herself, pulling the things from the cabinet and onto the sink. She nodded to herself, turning to finally get a good look at her charge.

She had to smile a bit sympathetically at his antics. He was trying really hard not to cry, but at the same time, couldn't help it. His head bowed, and holding his arm to himself like any badly wounded soldier would was just plain too adorable.

She kneeled down in front of him, bringing her wound cleaning supplies with her to the floor. Patting him on the head, she then gently coaxed him to let her see his arm. A cut was across his skin (from the heartless no doubt), and she clicked her tongue in a disapproving matter. "Well, that just won't do." She muttered, smiling back up at the sniffling boy. "Don't worry soldier, we'll patch you right up." She joked, hoping that would break Sora's concentration.

It worked. He blinked at her, still sniffling, but at least his focus was off the pain. "Okay?" he hesitantly spoke.

"See, first I'll spray you with this to make sure to get rid of all the nasty bugs and dirt, and then I'll wrap you up in this and you'll be fine." She explained to the boy what she was doing first, before she was going to do it.

"Will it hurt?" Sora questioned, just about ready to take his arm back if it would.

"Not at all. See." She sprayed the disinfectant on the cut, glancing up for Sora's reaction. "Did it hurt?"

"No?"

"And I bet you didn't trust me."

Sora didn't answer that, looking confused on how to answer. Aerith giggled. "So now I'll just wrap you up, and you can get on your way with playing."

* * *

When Aerith returned to the kitchen, with a now bandaged up Sora following after, her husband was home and had finished up the last of the cooking with her son. She smiled at Cloud, and he nodded back. No doubt they'd be talking about the Heartless later on, for she was sure Roxas told him the story as well. As for the rest of the day, she had heard Sora's story while he was getting patched up. She was definitely happy that she had forced her son to take him, and it had killed two birds with one stone. Sora had gotten clothes. Roxas had had fun. 

"Oh! What's that?" Sora questioned, catching the smell of something good in the kitchen. Roxas rolled his eyes, placing his head down on the table. "I ain't answering him!" He protested.

"Spaghetti, Sora." Aerith provided instead, giggling at the scene. "Would you like some?"

"Uh-huh."


	9. The Plot Thickens

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kingdom Hearts, and this is not for any reason other then for pure fun.

**Author's Note: **_Sorry for my long delay, but I've been really bad with procrastination latley. My Beta made me promise to get a chapter out before I started working (I'm a working girl now)...which I'll be doing tommorrow, so here is my promise. It's a fluffy chapter, with the plot thickening to what I want it to be (Hopefully, who knows with these characters). Oh...and Destiny: "He touched the butt!" From Finding Nemo. Enjoy the update!_

**Chapter 9: The Plot Thickens:**

Cycling past stores, pedestrians, birds…yes birds…you name it; he probably passed it. Except heartless. After the last excursion out, there had been a watch invoked by his father's company, and curfew had been shortened to eight at night. The police had no idea why the drastic change in the, seemingly, peaceful town, but orders were order, and they had to be obeyed.

Of course, the boy in question cycling right now was probably the only witness to such creatures popping up again, aside from a little lost boy with no memory of his past.

That had been quite a feat for Cloud to explain to his boss earlier in the week.

* * *

_Reaching up a hand, Cloud knocked on the door to his boss' office. Hearing a confirmation, he slipped inside, taking the set across from Mr. Pretzel while feeling envy at the cheerful energy in the room. After hearing of Roxas' encounter with beings that were supposed to be in other worlds, his whole world had been turned upside down. It was different when they were here, attacking his home and his family. In other worlds, there was a barrier between him and the people there. There, it didn't directly affect him, and he kept his sanity._

_Now…he worried about the weaknesses he had worked so hard to push away. He wondered if all those fears would come back, and block out his logical thinking when it came to his family. It had been so hard to restart life after…_

_"What brings you here bright and early in the mo-"_

_"They're back."_

_Mr. Pretzel frowned, finally noticing the stone mask Cloud had placed upon his face, to mask any emotions…and to show seriousness. How many times did Mr. Pretzel wish to wipe it off the blonde's face, if just to bring the man happiness for a while?_

_"I'm aware that-"_

_"Not James and Abbot."_

_Good, then there wasn't a problem at work that needed to be worked out, but that still didn't solve Mr. Pretzel's problem of figuring out Cloud's game. If it wasn't about the two employees of his finally returning from their business trips, then what was it about?_

_"I'm sor-"_

_"The Heartless."_

_That got a stare from the boss._

_Cloud didn't let his gaze waver, not the slightest bit._

_"You've got to be-"_

_"I'm not."_

_"But how could-"_

_"My son ran into them." Cloud purposely left Sora out of the equation, for the boy's sake. Mr. Pretzel didn't need any more reason to hold false grudges against the poor kid._

_"When-"_

_"Last night."_

_Mr. Pretzel sighed, leaning back in his seat as he let the information digest._

_"So you mean-"_

_"My son isn't a liar."_

_"I know. I know."_

* * *

Finally skidding to a halt, the blonde had reached his destination. Glancing up at the structure, he sighed, wondering what he was doing at the library when school was over with. Olette had called and told him to come right away though, so here he was.

After locking up his bike, Roxas made his way into the building. Glancing left and right, his search started for the brunette girl. Now, if she was looking for things to read in her spare time… He had better look in the fiction section then. Olette never got tired of magical stories with knights in shining armor. Roxas, on the other hand, never got into that mushy gushy stuff. He preferred horror stories any day.

Padding softly across the carpeting, his eyes swept passed the librarians' desk. You know that desk, where they check out the books for all the kids and return them. But, he had to do a double take since he was sure he had seen a familiar face in the small crowd of librarian workers.

He blinked once. Twice. Then the girl he was searching for giggled, leaning on the desk.

"Do I look professional?"

Roxas smiled back in response, walking over to the counter.

"You got the job?"

"Well…volunteer job. Fifteen hours of this a week and I get college credit. Best yet, no need to worry about return dates if I check out books. No overdue fees."

Roxas chucked at how excited his friend was getting over the little thing in life. Trust Olette to be thinking about college when the rest of them were just plain not thinking.

"I'm very happy for you."

"Really? You're not just being nice?"

"Why? You'll get out of college before any of us do. Why shouldn't I be happy that you want to get out of school so bad?"

She scowled at him for that, shooting Roxas a glare before joining in on the laughter. But then, she had quickly remembered where they were, and shushed Roxas for being so loud, which got her a mock glare in return, which she replied with an innocent smile.

"Now you have an excuse to come to the library without being ridiculed by Hayner." Olette let off easily as she moved onto her work, checking in a few books.

"Huh?"

"To visit me? Are you awake or not?"

"Oh…right." Remember the mentioning of Roxas only liking horror books and not those mushy gushy novels? Yeah…take that back a little. There were a few books, a FEW, he could tolerate, and Olette knew that little secret. Who do you think he kept saying he was holding books for when Hayner or Pence caught him with one of those books?

Yes, Roxas was in denial, and he preferred to stay that way.

* * *

"A B C D E F…uh…" Sora paused, putting a soapy finger to his chin in thought. Aerith glanced up from washing the kitchen table, smiling and the younger boy as he tried to sing the alphabet.

She and Sora were the only ones left in the house, since Cloud was away on duties and Roxas had insisted on going to the library. Probably to pick up a fantasy novel after "visiting" with Olette…Yes, she knew of what her son read. No, don't ask her how. Moms just know everything. Aerith was no exception. Besides, whom do you think read for him when he was Sora's age? Certainly not Cloud, he was the one checking under the bed and in the closet for "monsters."

Sometimes, they had even had mock battles where her husband would wrestle with a sweater or a toy of Roxas'. Roxas would shriek and hide under the covers until he realized that his father was playing, and then the little blonde would jump into the fray, and they would destroy the "monster" together. Aerith would watch on with amusement, playing the role of "maiden in distress" if the need arose.

When her role did come into play, it was often Roxas who played the role of the dashing prince, kissing his mom on the cheek before crawling into bed again as Cloud picked up their mess.

But, that was a long time ago, back before Roxas grew up and started doing more age appropriate things. Sure, she loved that her little boy was becoming a young man, but parents will always miss the carefree childhood days. Their kids will always be their little girl, or little boy, and those times in childhood would always live in their memories.

"Miss Strife…Miss Strife!"

Aerith blinked, looking down to find Sora pulling on her dress with an exasperated look on his face. Glancing up to the sink, where Sora had been "washing" the dishes (more like playing with them in the water); she wondered how long she had been caught in her daydream.

Looking down at the brunet, she smiled.

"What is it?"

"What comes next?"

"Next?"

"In the alphabutt!"

Aerith had to giggle. Who wouldn't giggle at that? Sora had said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and she couldn't help but laugh.

Sora, in turn, was confused, a small pout already forming as his questioned continued to go unanswered. He pulled on her dress again; a small whine finding its way into his voice. "Miss Striife?"

Aerith calmed herself, kneeling down so she was level with Sora.

"Now…what did I say you could call me?"

"Um…Aerith?"

"So why are you using Miss Strife?" Which -by the way- was also wrong since it would be Mrs. not Miss, but Sora wouldn't know that.

"Because…"

"Because…?"

"I don't know."

Aerith rolled her eyes, patting Sora on the head. Trust a kid to come up with that answer to everything. Shaking her head lightly, she stood up again, resuming her washing of the table.

Rather then arguing with Sora, she just let it slide…this time.

"Alright…where were you?"

After a few seconds of no answer, she glanced back down at the young boy, seeing him with his finger to his chin again as he thought. Noticing her stare, he shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"I forgot."

* * *

"How is it, out of all the people, he ends up with Roxas?"

"Hehe…well…things happen…"

"No, you had something to do with it!"

"No I didn't!" The pixie cried out indignantly, pouting she crossed her arms and leaned back away from the tiny table. It was tiny in the sense that it was fit for pixies, as it was the perfect size for two very small beings.

"Yes you did!" Crystal argued back, narrowing her eyes at the red pixie.

"Well, maybe I was going to make them meet up sometimes, but not right away!"

Crystal sighed as the shook her head at Firelight. "Figured so."

* * *

A young male fairy sat, glaring at a different fairy clad in a light green glow. She, in turn, was glaring back. Neither was happy with the situation they were both caught in.

School. It was the devil to them all.

Yes, young pixies went to school. Not everything was fun and games like you'd expect, for they had very different lives from the fairytales read by young children. Perhaps, at one time, it was exactly like the tale every child knew, but now, times had changed. Pixies had moved on and created their own life…and, mimicked the lives they loved to watch over. The humans.

Now, these two were stuck doing a project together with one slight problem. They both hated each other's guts.

The girl sighed, standing up once the "train" stopped. The "train" was a small cardboard box with string strung through small holes on opposite sides of said box. This string was hung perpendicularly over a wire, and due to a small wheel on top (that string went though a hole in the middle of the wheel), the box could be moved. Now, here's where gravity and ingenious skills take in. On either side of this long wire, which connected one "train station" to another, was a movable pin that fit into one of five holes. When the pin was moved down, the "train" moved towards that station. If it was moved up, the "train" moved away. Capish?

Back to the story…

The guy stood as well, following the girl out onto the "train station". She turned to him, taking one hand off her messenger bag strap and holding it out to him.

"We need to get this project done, and to do that, we need to work together. Call a truce till the projects done, Blaze?"

The red fairy smirked, clasping his hands in hers. "Just don't cry when I go back to picking on you."

"I don't plan to." Olive snorted, shaking his hand once before pulling away.

* * *

"Duuuuuuuuude! Did you see that?"

"Yes, fifteen minutes ago. Shut up about it already!"

"I know, but still!"

"I swear, I will zap your bubble if you don't shut up about it!"

"Geez, Sparks, no need to get zappy about it."

"It's spark-y! Get it right already!"

"You two can't go two minutes without fighting, can you?"

The two paused in their argument, glancing behind them at the hovering pixie. A young boy clad in a white glow floated to the ground. He smiled at his two friends shaking his head at his surfer friend.

"Are you still talking about Hikaru's fall? If he hears you, you're going to get him all doomy and gloomy again. I just got him out of that mood too!"

The boy pixie clad in a light blue light blushed just the slightest, rubbing his chin. "Sorry dude. It was just-"

"Argh, and can you stop saying dude!" Sparks jumped off of the fairy, washed over in an electric yellow light as he clenched his hands, glaring at the light blue boy.

"Take a chill pill Sparky. You need to be more like Bubbles here. Relaxed and mellowed out!" The white one said, hooking a thumb at the bubble boy. Bubbles just grinned again. However, it was quickly diminished at his friend's next words.

"No way! I'll never be like that! I'm not a finger-licking bubble butt!"

"Hey! No need to be rude!" the white fairy shouted, tapping his foot disapprovingly as he put his hands on his hips.

* * *

"My Queen."

"Please, rise."

The faerie rose to her feet, nodding to the queen. The Queen nodded back, glancing to the side at a pixie with a light brownish hue glowing around here. The brown pixie was busy scribbling out the conversation they were having. The Queen fairy, with a deep magenta hue around her, smiled. She shook her head at the antics of the other.

"Faith, why are you taking notes? It's not as if this is an important conversation."

The young pixie looked up from her work, smiling sheepishly at the others. "Sorry, it's a habit after being the royal scriber." She apologized, blushing red when the plain fairy, Tarot, shook her head at her.

Tarot was an unusual faerie that had no radiant light shining from within, meaning that there was no glow. It wasn't from lack of not wanting, but her powers were focused on much more important things.

"Actually, I do have some news of the future." Tarot spoke up, the other two perking up at her words.

"I hope everything tides right?" The Queen bit her lip out of slight worry. She hoped it was fairer news then one of her subjects in dire trouble.

"It has to do with Firelight…"

"My little sister?"


	10. Old Friends, New News

**Author's Note: **_Wow, I really need to update. Though, when writing this part, I felt my muses reawaken. So, hopefully that is a good thing. Anyway, today is my Beta's birthday, so what better way to celebrate it then update this story? So, it's been unbetaed, so ignore the gramatical errors and such. Yeah._

**Disclaimer: **Me no ownie anything.

**Chapter 10: Old Friends, New News**

* * *

Cloud really hated Leon at the moment. With a burning passion! More so now that he was face to face with what would be his faithful "sidekick" for the rest of the week.

A scrawny man that looked like he'd rather being doing paperwork then sitting there (with the way he kept looking back at his desk) hesitantly met the blonde's unwavering gaze. He squeaked again, looking to the side again.

Mousey. That was the only word Cloud could describe the man with. His "partner" was twitchy, scrunching up his nose like there was a bad smell in the air, and he'd just squeaked. If that wasn't enough, his hair was shaggy, and his eyes were wide open. Plus, the man's nervous habit of biting his lower lip often gave the blonde a view of his two front teeth.

Definetly mousey.

Every being the polite one (darn Aerith and her skills at making him feel guilty, even now, for even the thought of acting unpolitly), Cloud swept his hand out in a friendly gesture, nodding his small approval of the man (if anything, another laugh for Roxas).

"How may I help you…?" The old warrior realized he hadn't the slightest clue what the other guy's name was.

"Tastby. Theadore Tastby."

"Mr. Tastby…" Hm..switch the t and s and the first t to an r…ratsby! An infusion of a rat and a frisby!

"_Oh gods, I seriously need to get more sleep." _Cloud brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, a habit he had picked up from Leon. But no, that guy was off vacationing with his family while he was stuck here trying to find a replacement for the brunette's butt for the time being.

Realizing that a silence was lengthening, Cloud brushed off the forming headache and leaned forward (while trying to assure himself that he was not receiving the "I think you're crazy look" from Mr. Tastby) to show he was paying attention.

"Mr. Tastby, how may I help you?"

The mouse man blinked, shooting the blonde the "crazy" look again.

When said blonde only blinked back at him, Mr. Tastby went on.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

"Hm?"

"Mr. Pretzel sent me."

"Ah." That made sense. And here he thought the boss would make Cloud himself find a new partner (a way he would've preferred)!

Cloud nodded his consent, and stood up. He leaned further over the table, and held out a hand to Mr. Tastby.

"I guess, we'll be working together for the rest of the week, partner."

After all, he didn't want to displease his nut of a boss. If he sent Mr. Tastby, then Mr. Tastby it is.

Mouse man was in for a work out of his life.

* * *

"Is that all for the day?"

"Mm-hm…unless I can get your to come home with me."

Olette scowled, playfully pushing the books back across the counter to Roxas.

"I'm still at work Rox. Can't."

"Later?"

"Later."

Roxas smirked, holding in the laughter bubbling under the surface as his gaze slid over to the ladies also behind the counter. One was stacking books, acting like she wasn't listening. The other lady didn't even try to hide it. She was gazing at the pair of them with keen interest.

Sliding his gaze back to meet Olette's, he raised an eyebrow at her face. She was trying as hard as he was to not laugh and throw off the game.

Earlier, once Roxas had gone to browse the selves, some nosey co-workers of Olette had asked if he was the girl's boyfriend. He had denied it then, saying they were just friends. Yet, the co-workers hadn't seemed convinced.

Now, thanks to a sudden mischievous streak in his brunette friend, they were not giving those co-workers something to gossip about.

Biting his lip, Roxas grabbed the books and slipped them into his shoulder bag. He then gave a last nod to Olette, and then, as he turned, a wink.

He heard the gasp from the lady watching them as he turned to walk out of the library, along with the snort as Olette kept in her laughter.

Walking into fresh air, he quickly darted to the side. Clutching his side as he finally let out all the laughter he had been holding inside, he leaned a hand against the wall of the library.

* * *

"What's so funny, blondie?"

Honestly, the boy looked like he was going to keel over and die with all the laughter bubbling out. Axel was sure that if anyone could die from laughter, the blonde in front of him was a good candidate.

Said blonde only glanced up for a second, recognition flashing in the clear blue eyes, before the blonde was back to his laughed fit.

Axel merely shook his head, chuckling himself as he crossed his arms, waiting until the blonde calmed down.

"Axel! I haven't seen you since last summer!"

"Duh! I only come to Twilight Town in the summer. And, in case you don't recall, it's summer, so I'm here." Axel teased, bringing up a hand to tap at his forehead, as if he was scolding the blonde for not thinking.

"I know that!" Roxas growled back cheerfully, brushing some invisible dirt off his knees as he righted himself fully, taking deep breaths still.

"You never come to the library though." Roxas shifted a hand through his hair.

"You do, though."

"You were looking for me?"

Axel sighed dramatically, bringing a hand up to his forehead in mock hurt. "I come back, and my friend doesn't even seem to care enough to say 'hi'." –Roxas rolled his eyes at this, placing his hands on his hips- "Oh well, guess I know where I'm not wanted." Axel brushed off, returning to normal as he turned to walk away from the blonde.

"Hey! Wait!" Roxas called, running forward to catch the redhead's hand and pull him back.

"You can't scold me for not saying 'hi'. You didn't say 'hi' yourself!"

"Of course I said 'hi'!"

"No you didn't. You said: 'What's so funny, blondie?'" Roxas corrected shaking his head.

"Oh yeah!"

"Pfft! And you catchphrase is 'Got it memorized?'"

"Hey, just because it is my catchphrase doesn't mean I have to abide by it."

"Well, are you just a hypocrite?"

"Why thank you, Roxas!"

"That wasn't a compliment!" Roxas scowled, letting go of the older's man hand to punch him playfully in the shoulder. Axel simply stuck out his tongue in response.

They both started walking again, heading to Roxas's house without a work spoken about it. It was simply…tradition.

"Seriously though, what was so funny?"

Roxas chuckled, shaking his head as he adjusted his shoulder bag.

* * *

"Yes, but the news is great."

"Out with it then!" Aleyone urged, leaning forward in the thrown to listen to Tarot's words.

"She has been granted a child."

Faith gasped to the side, quickly scribbling the news down. It was the happiest news to reach their ears in a long time.

Aleyone blinked a few times, before leaning back again, the sheer excitement of the situation leaving her shock.

Her sister had been granted a child. Her sister…Her's…Firelight…she…

"When will it happen?" She questioned quietly, not trusting her words any farther then she could throw them.

"It already has."

"She already has met with her child!" Aleyone burst out, leaning forward again, a sense of pride flashing through her eyes at the thoughts of her sister. Her clutzy, ditzy sister…a child…she was granted a child.

Faith, on the other hand, seemed to come to her senses more quickly than the Queen.

"But, you said you had news of the future." She pointed out (after scribbling down the rest of the news of Firelight's brush with Destiny).

The Queen blushed, shaking her head to get her head out of the clouds.

"Right." She echoed, turning her attention back to Tarot.

"Yes. Unfortunately, troubles have, and will, continue to befall the child. Firelight will be placed in danger, and…" She left it out, unable to say more of the future for fear of wrecking it. Tarot was loyal to her Queen, but never, would she disturb what was to be. She only ever gave enough info to inform, and to help lessen the burden.

Unfortunetly, Aleyone (the Queen), felt her older sister senses kicking in, and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to pry answers out of the seer fairy's lips (much to the amusement of Faith).

* * *

"Hey! Hikaru! Why so glum!" Firelight and Crystal were still at the small café, squabbling over the fact that Firelight had deliberately wanted Sora to meet Roxas. So, when Hikaru (a fairy of Twilight, meaning his aura was a mixture of whites and blacks twisting into grays) walked by with his doom and gloom face on, Firelight called him out on it (if only for a change in conversation).

"Yeah, usually you never go anywhere without Hikari." Crystal chimed in, still miffed from the tactics of the red fairy friend.

Sadly, that appeared to be the wrong thing to say to the twilight fairy though.

"Just because he's my twin doesn't mean I always follow him around like a lost puppy! He can just go and stuff it with his friends. I don't need him, or them! So, stop bothering me about it!" Hikaru roared, turning and stomping his foot childishly as he directed his rant at the two fairies.

Firelight pouted in response.

Crystal rolled her eyes, simply passing it off as another regular day between the twins. Fighting, making up, and then fighting again. Yep, that was all the twins did lately.

The pout Firelight had on her face seemed to make it through the twilight fairy's angry exterior, because he sighed and ran his hands through his hair in an attempt to calm himself down.

"Sorry. Just a small misunderstanding…and me getting laughed at, as usual."

Crystal rolled her eyes again. There was the doom and gloom speech, yet, but the way Firelight had raised from her seat; she knew the other fairy had fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker.

"Aw, don't say that, Hikaru! You're special, and you know it!" Firelight exclaimed, enveloping the boy in a hug.

"Yeah, in my head." He replied sadly, hanging his head on Firelight's shoulder.

Crystal rolled her eyes again. Honestly…

* * *

**Author's Note 2: **_If anyone can figure out where Hikaru's last line comes from, Kudos to you. Also, I figured out what I needed in this fic. Some romance (because it's really dry at the moment, and until I figure out Sora's character again, that won't be moving anywher). So, I'm asking you guys for some help. I'm not sure whether to have RoxasXOlette, or AkuRoku (because, seriously, during some parts, I swear Roxas is trying ot tell me he's gay), and now, looking at this, I'm wondering if some love between the fairies will start up (Firelight and Hikaru?). As for the others, I'm not sure. So, I'm just asking for suggestions on how the couples should turn out here, or if you think that love will just be a hassle, tell me about that too. Anything, since I'm not sure where to go. Anyway, thanks for reading. I'll try to update within a month this time! Over and out!_


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